Bedbugs found in Lethbridge seniors' homes

Exterminators have treated two seniors' homes in Lethbridge for bedbugs.

Alberta Health Services confirmed Monday thatstaff at Pemmican Lodge and Black Rock Terrace in southern Albertahave been dealing with the insects for months.

"Both of these sites have done an excellent job of resolving their issues in a very timely manner,"said Stephen Kirkpatrick, a public health inspector in Lethbridge.

"Unfortunately, bedbugs can be quite challenging to get rid of so it can take more than a week in some cases."

A Calgary exterminator says there are a number of products that kill bed bugs.

But Keith Petrie of Cal-Ridsays he uses mostly heat, steaming and vacuuming for seniors centres because seniors and staff are present all day.

"They have to eat, they have to go to bed, they have to be bathed," he said."And there's only a certain time period that you have to work with the bed bugs in these rooms because there's just people throughout the entire facility all day long24 hours a daywhether or not it's the patients or the tenants or whether or not it's even the staff, and we have to look after the staff also."

AHS believes the problems at the Lethbridge facilities were caught quickly and exterminators were called in right away.