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 Posté le: Mar Oct 08, 2013 1:08 am Sujet du message: Woman tormented by bedbugs: Fiorito |
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{Woman tormented by bedbugs: Fiorito}
Amy’s son went to camp this past summer. The camp was for kids in public housing, and you know how it goes: kids are observant and cruel and sometimes they prey on the weakness of others. In this case,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.net]michael kors canada[/url], some of the other kids noticed the bedbug bite marks on Amy’s son’s body,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.net]Michael Kors Outlet[/url], and they taunted him and pushed him around, and one kid punched him.The boy should not have to suffer twice. And Amy can’t take it any more. Nor should she have to.Enough is enough.She noticed the first bugs around Christmas of last year. She said, “I saw one or two here and there. I killed them. I figured they came in off someone’s clothing. I never thought I had them.” She had them.“They started getting worse in March. They were in the bed really bad. I had a box spring.” She threw the box spring out, along with the headboard, but she kept the mattress.A mistake? Yes. But it is the kind of mistake based on hope, and also on income: who among us, especially those of us on benefits, can afford to replace their furniture at will?Amy called her landlord, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and she called again, and her place was sprayed and sprayed again,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.net]Michael Kors Handbags Outlet[/url], but nothing seemed to work.Let me simply say that the business of repeated sprayings is a conundrum: why, if you can’t get rid of them after the third spraying, isn’t some sort of intervention called for.This is personal. If you are bitten, you don’t have friends or relatives over; you wear clothing to hide your bites; you end up sleeping on the floor or in the bathtub, if you sleep at all. It’s hell on your nerves.Oddly, her fiancé was not being bitten; the little bloodsuckers are selective.Amy said, “I’ve been sprayed four times. They want to do five and six sprayings. I had an inspector come two times. He said we weren’t ready; they wanted everything packed and out.”You should also know this by now: if you are being sprayed for bugs, your things have to be packed up, your pictures taken from the walls,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.net]Michael Kors Handbags[/url], your clothing bagged, your furniture moved to the middle of the rooms. That’s not easy for Amy. Her fiancé has a disability and he can’t help. She had been living in a townhouse before she moved into her apartment, and one of the problems for people who live in public housing — this is serious — is a lack of storage space. She said, “I need help. I can’t do it myself. I know I gotta chuck some stuff, but some of it is from my mom who passed away.” Her mother died two years ago. The pain of that is still fresh. She can’t talk about it without tearing up.She is 29 years old. She is on benefits. She has a caseworker. Her worker has never visited her at home. But her worker told her that, while there was no help available to pack her stuff, there was some money to replace her stuff.That sounds typically dumb.Okay, Amy’s place has been sprayed four times, and the bugs are still sucking away, and her son got punched because of his bite marks when he was at camp, and so on and so forth. This is not even close to an unusual story. People get bugs from people who have bugs, and bugs travel freely, and the problem seems to be getting worse in Amy’s building.So I called TCHC’s head bedbug guy. I told him Amy’s story. He said he’d be happy to take a look. I said I wanted to watch him work. He said fine, and Amy said fine.More next time.Joe Fiorito appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. jfiorito@thestar.ca
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