Sunset Haven battles bed bugs

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Growing up, Penny Girouard and her four siblings joked that a bug would never have been spotted in the spick and span household their mother provided.
Despite her shipshape upbringing and well-kept grooming, the 79-year-old is amongst 31 senior residents from Sunset Haven, Wheatland Housing’s independent living facility, scrambling to pack up belongings, battling to access one of two dryer machines and avoiding bed bugs that have the residents in an uproar.
“It’s just chaos here, I’m not kidding,” said Girouard. “Everybody is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I’m 79 years old and I can’t believe this is happening to us. We’re fighting when we are trying to get our dryers and washers going. Some people are being inconvenienced, and had it not been for my two daughters, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Girouard said residents were told to pack their belongings in containers, dry the items at high heat in the dryer, and stay with family members or arrange for other accommodations when a bed bug extermination company is available to spray down the units.
Girouard has two daughters living in Strathmore who have provided additional support. Both women are foster parents with a full household. While the 79-year-old has that safety net, she – along with most other residents – decided to stay in her unit for now. However, she worries about those with mobility and health issues who are left without the help of family.
“They said we had a choice; we could stay with somebody or stay here. Well naturally everybody wanted to stay in their house,” she said. “I’m pretty patient. Do what you have to do but do it. Everyone is the same as I am. We’re not happy, but what can you do? We can’t screen people when they’re coming in.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Bugs are bugs, but I think people should know about it. We had to strip our beds and I understand that, but again I put my bedding in the dryer on hot and tonight I have to put a blanket on there and sleep on that. I can’t put it back down because they want it off.”
According to Girouard, one of the residents’ belongings had been seen stored outside about a month ago – items including furniture, a bed frame and a mattress. Shortly after, one other resident living directly above the unit was said to have noticed bed bugs in her suite, so she moved in with her daughter and had the unit sprayed twice.
Bed bugs are parasitic insects that feed primarily on blood. They are small brown, oval insects that move quickly over floors, walls and even ceilings. Over a lifetime, the female bug can lay hundreds of eggs. They hide in mattresses, box springs, headboards and bed frames.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to inconvenience the folks who are living there until they can get that remedied, but that’s generally how it works,” said Bruce Conway, senior media relations advisor for Alberta Health Services. “Bed bugs are not a reportable illness as other maladies might be, it’s somewhat different that way. It sounds to me like they’re already on their way the way it has to happen. They certainly have to get that taken care of right away, but it’s not a reportable illness.”
Management at Sunset Haven was unavailable for comment.
For now, residents continue to pack their items in bags and bins and wait for further instruction when an exterminating company becomes available.