Being as it was summer time and we spend a lot of time outside, I thought that they were simply mosquito bites. When she continued to have the bites well into the fall season, I was pretty sure something else was going on, though I wasn't sure what. The possibility of bed bugs crossed my mind once I started getting bites also. The first inspection I did, I found nothing - I clearly wasn't thorough enough. It was November 9 before I did another inspection, much more thorough this time, and found a number of baby bed bugs in the seams of my daughter's mattress, as well as two adult sized bugs on my own mattress.

Thus began my 6 month long nightmare. Our home was treated in November, December and January before it began to look like they were gone. In March I realized that this was actually not the case. They did two more treatments in April after which I did not see another bed bug for the duration of my lease.

Throughout the experience my building managers blamed me for the problem, lied to me, attempted to intimidate me, and also simply did not know what they were talking about despite supposedly having past experience dealing with said pest. The treatments were not done properly: The paperwork I was given had been signed and placed in my doorway by building managers clearly stated that a full bed bug treatment consists of TWO full treatments, TWO weeks apart. I had to call and inquire about the second treatment only to find out that my building managers knew nothing about this!?! The health unit informed me that it generally take TWO-THREE treatments to get rid of bed bugs, while my building managers tried to tell me they should have been gone after one treatment (even though they had signed paperwork stating otherwise!!)! The first three treatments were completed by the same exterminator. When he came to do the third treatment, he seemed puzzled that the bugs weren't gone yet.

In April though, the company sent a different guy. He proceeded to tell me that the reason the bugs weren't gone yet was because I wasn't properly prepared. I had placed everything in my room into the middle of my room, but not everything was in a sealed bag - this was the biggest problem, he said. He wanted everything from the middle of my room bagged, sealed and taken out of my bedroom altogether. That being said, the exterminator who had treated our home three times previously had stated that we had done a great job preparing and that there were no problems. He said that most people don't bother doing very much at all in the way of preparation. At the two treatments following the first, he never once mentioned that anything was wrong and that I should bag the items in the middle of my room. Preparation consists of bagging everything in your house, washing and drying all clothing and bedding at the highest heat and then put into a sealed bag, pushing all furniture at least two feet away from the walls. Outlet plates were to be removed, everything from the walls taken down and placed in the middle of the room, etc. At the exterminator's request, I quickly put everything from the middle of my room in sealed bags and took them out of my bedroom.

I told this exterminator that the first three treatments hadn't been done properly - I had to call and ask for the second treatment, thus they were completed four weeks apart and five weeks apart for the second and third treatments. The exterminator couldn't believe this and told me that the pest control company is supposed to automatically book the second treatment even without having been asked to. In April, the follow up treatment happened exactly two weeks to the day of the one before it, as it should have been done in the first place.

We moved out on August 1, 2012 and haven't had any problems of the sort. My girls and I lived out of rubber maid bins for more than 6 months. We had to change out of our pajamas every morning in the upstairs bathroom, bag them and seal it and then go downstairs to get dressed. I lived with anxiety, paranoia, and even depression as a result of this experience. I remain paranoid and am sure that won't change anytime soon.

Northwood village was owned by Timbercreek while I lived there, but has since been sold to Greenwin.... here's hoping they do a better job. I have since learned that some of the apartment buildings there have had bed bug problems for close to 10 years.

contacted our landlord and as we are moving out at the end of the month, they have told us the pest control will not be available until after we are moved out. What are we supposed to do in the meantime? Discard our only furniture? This situation is horrible.