DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY. Bed bug treatment in Hamilton from Orkin Pest Control has been a nightmare... After more than six months of return visits every two weeks to treat my home for bed bugs the manager told me there is no evidence of bed bugs and they will not treat my house any more... and the second last time they were here the technician found bed bugs in my couch.
Let me start at the beginning, more than six months ago. After the initial visit I called for a follow up. The person on the phone said "that's not possible!" and that she would have to confirm with the technician. She called back and confirmed the appointment. I sent an email demanding that on future visits their technician steam cleans my furniture, bed frames etc. as promised on their website and by their sales agent. On the first few visits my partner stayed home from work to let them in, and hung around in the backyard while they completed their treatment. The only equipment they brought was a $20 garden sprayer and an aerosol can... no steam cleaner. While my partner waited in the backyard the technician took all of 20 minutes to treat our house; likely only spraying the baseboards. This went on for the first four or five visits while I repeatedly demanded by email and by phone that they do as promised and steam clean my furniture. Finally they complied with this, although I'm not convinced the technician did a much better job steam cleaning.
As a side note, my partner and I spent days preparing our house to be treated (washing clothing and fabrics, bagging and isolating outside in tents; vacuuming; moving furniture; taking furniture apart etc.) Most of our clothing has been kept in our backyard in tents for more than six months now. All the time we spent preparing and the technician spends 20 minutes in our house, until we repeatedly demanded that they do a more thorough job... This experience has been more than a little bit insulting... and infuriating considering we paid $1000 for the service. So far we've had to cancel friends staying with us who were visiting from out of the country in the fall, and more recently christmas dinner with family at our place. We've been dealing with this since August.
Fast forward six months, on the second last visit the technician found bugs in my couch. When I called for a follow up the manager told me we don't have bed bugs any more and that the technician won't be coming back. I had to remind him that we're guaranteed for three months from our last visit. Hopefully this nightmare is over, as I don't think Orkin will honour their guarantee.
For anyone dealing with bed bugs, here is some interesting info: the pesticides that companies like Orkin use are available to order from Amazon.ca or buy at specialty stores. If you consider applying these yourself I suggest you research their safe application thoroughly. You need to purchase a proper respirator and goggles (~$50); Tyvek coveralls / hazmat suit (~$15): both can be purchased at Home Depot; you need to vacate your house for at least 4 hours after spraying; and you NEED to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS on the chemicals; also do your own research about their safe application (baseboards and underside of furniture; not surfaces where you'll sit or lay and breathe chemicals or get them on clothing). But for anyone interested, knowing what I know now, I would never pay $1000 to a company like Orkin to spray my baseboards with chemicals I can easily order online and apply myself. If you do this safely it's far from rocket surgery. Basically, for less than $200 you can order a lifetime supply of the materials to do the exact same job as Orkin and save yourself the money and frustration of dealing with these people. The pesticides to search on amazon or in store are: Tempo / Countdown ; and ; Permethrin (WARNING: if you have cats be sure to get them out of the house for 24hrs after spraying Permethrin... it's toxic to cats... but ok once it's dried). Start with the Tempo and if it doesn't work move to Permethrin; bed bugs can develop immunity to pesticides pretty fast so it might be necessary to switch from one to the other. This is the exact treatment that Orkin provided me and the only reason I know is because the wrote the name of the pesticides they used on my invoice. I did my own research and now I'm sharing the info with you.
Please share this info far and wide... I live in Hamilton and we have a bed bug epidemic happening. As I said, the chemicals can be ordered on Amazon or bought at specialty stores; in Hamilton there is a store on Barton St. If you or someone you know is dealing with bed bugs and can't afford a heat treatment, I recommend saving money and treating the problem yourself: follow the instructions in the paragraph above, but please do your own research, use common sense and follow any and all instructions and safety procedures. Just don't give any money to Orkin, they suck.
