Dear Urban Diplomat: Do I need to tell my house guests about bedbugs?
Dear Urban Diplomat,
In a couple of weeks, I’m hosting an engagement party for my daughter, and 75 people are expected. Some are flying in and have already booked their tickets. The catch is, we’ve just had an exterminator in to treat our house for bedbugs. While they’re probably all gone, you never know. I haven’t told anyone about my bedbug problem and want to host the party as planned. Cancelling it would be a huge hassle for the out-of-town guests and pretty devastating for my daughter. Am I wrong?
—Bugging out,
FOREST HILL
You know what would be really devastating? Sending 75 of your closest friends and family out into the city and back to their homes with bedbugs secreted away in their pockets and purses. Do not, for the love of your soon-to-be-wed daughter, host this engagement party. Bedbugs are evasive, stubborn little bloodsuckers that almost always require multiple extermination treatments. It’s not uncommon for people who live in row houses, where the bugs can travel between domains, to fight them for a year or two. You need to wait at least three or four months from the time you see your last bite to the time you host anything. But that doesn’t mean you should send a cancelled-due-to-infestation memo to all invitees. You can still throw a killer party; just book a private room at a sophisticated restaurant. You’ll get hosting accolades for picking a great venue, and your daughter will remain undevastated (and uninfested). A bit of unsolicited advice: keep the unholy pests out of your cocktail chatter—the stigma is almost as unshakeable as the bugs themselves.
The trick to bedbugs is to catch the infestation early. In this regard, I have had success with the BugBox product from the US. Not only does it catch them early, but it’s inexpensive and very discreet. Should be available in Canada soon. Good luck.
Agree the key is early detection. Discreetness is also very important so what we have used that is already here is called The Bed Moat. Available from Agrium here in Ontario.
A monitor, a trap, fits tight to a wall. Make your furniture an island and beat down this scourge!
Bed Moat might work, but looks like it would cost $80 for 4 beds as averse to BugBox at $6.95 for 4 beds and has saved me a fortune. Uses a pheremone to attract them at an early stage and is easy to use.
I travel to China on business frequently and have used the BugBox numerous times. It has saved me large expenditures via early detection and allowed me to sleep well, as I know it works well.
You all sound like shills for the products you mention, I don’t think you’re legit.
Well dt, I suppose that I am a shill, as I just purchased the canadian rights to distribute BugBox, but I did so because it works. Sorry if you were offended.
Toronto should boycott the “BugBox” simply because of the new rights ‘owner’ using a blog to try to sell his product!
On another note…
I agree completely with the advice given to NOT host the party – Great idea to look even better by hosting it at a really nice venue instead of your house!
How could one even consider potentially inflicting bed bugs on their closest friends and family – I’m sure you wouldn’t do that if you (G-d forbid) had a horrible disease that might still infect someone that came to your house!? That’s Forest Hill for ya’…lol (it’s ok that i said that, I grew up in Forest Hill)
Check out this Toronto bed bug blog…it’s got really good info on bed bugs and Toronto bed bug resources.
Good article on the landlord license thing and great advice on hiring a bed bug extermiator etc.
http://bed-bugs-toronto.blogspot.com
If you do happen to get these nasty things use diatomaceous earth to get rid of them. It also helps prevent them getting into your home http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Diatomaceous-Earth-Food-Grade-p39.htm
I think it would be better to host your party at a venue. Since you have people comming from all other countries, courtesy is so important. You do not need to have your guest return to their homes with Bed Bugs.
Have a great Party at a nice venue.
Ismay
I wonder if the problem has been dealt with. We had bed bugs once and we
it took a while to get rid of them. We had to call two different
exterminators to do the job. This looks like a much harder and bigger
problem to deal with. http://www.pestxperts.ca/