Bedbugs beware: Startups bet on mother nature

Before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics even began, Karn Manhas found himself in a heated discussion about a possible outcome for Canada that had nothing to do with the podium: a bedbug boom.

It wasnt inconceivable. By the end of the 2000 Sydney Games in Australia, about 98 per cent of the hotels in Sydney had at least one room infected with the blood-sucking insects. Australian scientist Stephen Doggett noted a 5,000-per-cent increase in the treatment of bedbugs between 2000 and 2005 in Sydneys state of New South Wales.

Europe and North America are dealing with a resurgence of the pests, and Toronto and Vancouver are on a top-10 list of most-infested cities in North America compiled by Insight Pharmaceuticals. These unsettling facts left Mr. Manhas and a colleague arguing about solutions.

Pesticide use is on the wane, driven by concern about toxic substances and potential insect resistance. And the pesticides that remain arent necessarily working. They dont kill bedbug eggs, so once they hatch, exterminators need to return. And now, bedbug populations are showing a strong immunity to the class of pesticides most commonly in use.

Mr. Manhas, a former member of the B.C. legislature with a degree in biology and a minor in biotechnology, decided he had something to prove: Natural alternatives could stamp out bedbugs. He hadnt planned on developing a research project or founding a company. He just wanted to win the argument, he says.

Among the companies working on the bedbug problem is Rest Assured MC Inc., based in Ottawa. Heat is their weapon, says Lawrence Chadnick, president of the firm, which is a manufacturer and supplier of bedbug products.

Treating a whole house with heat will kill everything, he says. Mr. Chadnick has developed a heat chamber that is portable and electric.

Eco Bug Doctor, based in Montreal, has devised a self-sterilizing bed that uses both heat and bedbug traps to allow people to have a worry-free night. The only way that a bedbug can travel up onto the Good Knight bed is through a system of traps. If the traps dont stop them, then the owner can heat the bed with a cover stored beneath it. It shuts off automatically when finished.

For 16 years, we were doing ecological solutions, but we found that no matter what you do, it is a pretty labour intensive process, says Laurel Maloney, director of marketing for the company. We wanted something easier and something that would make it so that the user could actually be their own bug buster.

The bed has gone through five trials, and the company is finalizing certification from the Canadian Standards Association, and gearing up for its first major order. It is also negotiating a contract with the Canadian government to provide beds for military workers, who often find themselves in pest-ridden situations.

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Bedbugs beware: Startups bet on mother nature