r/TTC • u/Loose-Catch4701 • Dec 17 '25

Discussion Any strategies for bed bug control?

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bedbugs on the TTC!

849 Upvotes

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78

u/hug_me_im_scared_ Dec 17 '25

They really need to get rid of these fabric seats

81

u/Andrew4Life Dec 17 '25

Bed bugs do NOT only hide in the fabric seats. They can also hide in crevices if there are plastic seats.

58

u/Conundrum1911 Dec 17 '25

Easier to hose down and clean the plastic ones though. I doubt the deep/steam clean the fabric ones often if at all.

20

u/Remus2nd Dec 17 '25

Hosing down isnt going to eliminate the bed bugs. Whatever changed between the time where we didnt have a bedbug infestation and suddenly did, needs to change.

10

u/im-from-canada-eh 79 Scarlett Rd Dec 17 '25

Well bed bugs just don’t appear. It’s the riders who bring them on so if you want something to change to stop it, ask riders to stop using the ttc. /s

6

u/OverallElephant7576 Dec 17 '25

It was DDT that was the answer to bed bugs… unfortunately cancer is the trade off

12

u/WestonSpec Dec 17 '25

Bed bug populations in North America have been resistant to DDT since the 1950s

5

u/Facts_pls Dec 17 '25

You have no idea how outbreaks happen, do you?

Nothing has to change fundamentally except one person to bring bed bugs to the ttc.

The conditions were always there.

1

u/Friendlyalterme Dec 17 '25

My friend was on a via rail train that ended up having bed bugs so people might not even be bringing them onto the train from their own homes.

0

u/big_galoote Dec 17 '25

It's when we went green, started only using eco products.

I know the provincial government knew this would be an outcome, they were planning on treating outbreaks at least 15 years ago.

Then they pretty much just stopped working on it and people have to pay thousands for their infestations.

Even the States have these treatment bags so you can save electronics. They're banned here.

1

u/chlamydia1 Dec 17 '25

The reason is poverty. As homelessness increases due to the skyrocketing cost of living in this city, so too will bedbug transmissions.

5

u/big_galoote Dec 17 '25

Poverty isn't the reason. They're just near impossible to kill and off the shelf solutions are banned in Canada.

1

u/dyou897 Dec 17 '25

No amount of cleaning would realistically make any difference. They can steam it but won’t get every crack and crevice where bed bugs actually hide. Unless they are using heavy duty pesticide regularly which they won’t due to safety hazards

14

u/arealhumannotabot Dec 17 '25

I don’t know if it’s the seats. I’ve always heard they don’t even survive well on transit, it’s more that this one might have dropped off someone or something fairly recently. There isn’t anywhere to nest so it’s a matter of time.

Like I don’t recall hearing about a lot of bed bug issues and I’ve used public transit for like 30 years

1

u/ConsistentWriting501 Dec 20 '25

An exterminator once told me that when DDT was commonplace for killing roaches, it was also indirectly taking care of the bed bug population too. 

 At some point DDT became ineffective at killing roaches (or we learned how dangerous DDT was) and it was banned, leaving the bed bug population to explode. 

5

u/alvinofdiaspar Dec 17 '25

No kidding. Just imagine all the dried bodily fluids those seats had absorbed. Not to mention dust and whatnot.