Bed bugs infest Canton home

CANTON, Ohio - When paramedics responded to a home on Harvey Street in southeast Canton on Monday, they were surprised to see an infestation of bed bugs.

Environmental director for the Canton Health Department Mark Adams responded to the home and found bed bugs crawling on paramedics as they were coming out of the house.

“After they did what they needed to do, they realized that there was an extreme problem with bed bugs in the house, so they gave us a call,” Adams said. “I went and found that bed bugs were on some of the firemen. I picked them off of them, then went into the home for an inspection.”

The problem with bed bugs is that the insects know no boundaries and can turn up in the most affluent of neighborhoods, as well as in lower economic areas.

"When I enter a house, bed bug infestation is not on my mind. We're concentrating on taking care of protocol and standing orders,” said Canton firefighter Derek Paige.

“Apparently, bed bugs are everywhere. We are not going to know if they are in the lower income homes or the higher income homes, we just have to be aware of our surrounding at all times,” said Canton firefighter Brian Collins.

The city of Canton has held training sessions to educate the safety forces about the bug problem.