PHOTO: A bed bug has been found on the Toronto subway
An unsuspecting TTC rider with a sharp eye spotted an unusual insect sighting -- a bed bug -- resting on a seat on a Line 1 train, as reported by blogTO.
Toronto was previously ranked Canada's top bed bug city in the entire country for 2018, and since 2015 the City of Toronto has utilized a $1 million bed bug strategy to tackle the problem.
Bed bugs have the ability to easily spread in multi-unit buildings like apartments and condos, which makes Toronto an ideal breeding ground for these stubborn insects.
In cold temperatures bed bugs are able to lower the freezing point of their bodily fluids, which allows them to survive in environments that are significantly colder than the ideal conditions. Studies have found that bed bugs can survive for days at temperaturs well below freezing, and that it took 80 hours at temperatures of -16°C for conditions to become fatal.
(Related: Canada's bed bug hot spots: See where your city ranks)
Social media users have taken to Twitter to express their concerns about the cleanliness of the subways, and the TTC Customer Service Twitter account has stated that bed bugs can travel anywhere with the people they crawl on to, and the train will receive a deep clean when a complaint is filed.
Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of, and pest management companies have reported that some are even becoming resistant to the typical treatment of pesticides. The best treatment options typically involve a combination of prevention, monitoring, and management and well as multiple applications of heat and steam from professional equipment.
