treating all units except one -- 1908.

According to a Landlord and Tenant Board ruling, the resident, (name removed), refused to let anyone in to spray.

Ridding a building of bedbugs requires a blanket treatment, where the entire building is sprayed.

It's not like the city didn't try. It visited Unit 1908 at least eight times. Each time, the bedbug warriors were turned away for different reasons -- once because, they say, (name removed), a 35-year-old convicted drug dealer, changed the locks.

Because of this, the bedbugs are back and the city will now "be facing the expense of having to start the whole process (of fumigating) over again," according to the Landlord and Tenant Board ruling.

The board ruled last month that (name removed) "substantially interfered with the reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex by the other tenants." (name removed) was evicted Friday at 8:45 a.m. The provincial Sheriff's Office and Ottawa police escorted (removed) and his girlfriend to the curb.

The displaced couple was polite and agreed to leave right away.

Up on the 19th floor, the couple could be seen lugging out new winter coats, TV sets and other belongings. Down the elevator they went, three floors down, to a friend's unit.

(name removed), who lives on a disability cheque, said Friday that his eviction was a mixup. He told the Citizen he returned late from a meeting with his parole officer when the city came to spray his apartment.

(name removed) said bedbugs were "rampant" in the building before he moved in two years ago.

"You see them walking in the hallways. They're everywhere," he said.

(name removed), the girlfriend, said life at the public housing apartment building was "terrible" and that she was "glad to be gone."

Her boyfriend, the fumigation holdout, has had his share of trouble in the past. In the 1990s he was convicted after shaking a four-month-old baby boy so hard that the infant was left without the ability to walk, talk or see. The boy he was babysitting also suffered broken ribs, a fractured arm, and wrist and leg injuries.

The judge said in Ottawa court that it was surprising that the infant didn't die.

When asked about the criminal case that resulted in a five-year prison term, (name removed) said: "It's part of my life I'd like to forget."

The judge at the time called (name removed) a parasite -- not unlike the blood-sucking bugs he left behind at the public housing apartment building on Maclaren.

How to detect bedbugs

# Inspect mattresses and box springs, especially around seams and corners.

# Look for blood spots on sheets, small black smears (droppings), or shed bug skins.

# Bedbugs are most active about an hour before dawn. To see them, keep a flashlight in easy reach of your bed. Don't move too much, as that will startle the bugs, but shine the light along mattress seams and baseboards"