Bats, rats and bedbugs: Ottawa public servants returning to pest-ridden buildings

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Federal public servants are returning to their offices more regularly starting this week, joining a variety of critters that have made the buildings their home.

According to data provided by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), the federal government received 369 pest-related service calls within the National Capital Region (NCR) between April 1, 2024 and Aug. 19, 2024. Of those, 197 led to a confirmed presence of pests.

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Ants, bedbugs, birds, rats, cockroaches, bats and a snake were among the animals found in the 48 buildings owned by the federal government in the area.

The building with the worst pest problem was L’Esplanade Laurier, which had 19 confirmed reports of mice — with some made on the same date — as well as one case of insects and one case of ants. Treatment in the building included setting up baiting stations and ceiling treatment for mice, with ant bait gel also applied.

The presence of pests in federal buildings is an issue that has been raised by federal unions, especially as public servants have been forced back into the office three days a week.

The government’s new remote work mandate, which took effect Monday, requires all staff employed under the Treasury Board to work on-site a minimum of three days a week. For executives, the expectation is that they work in the office four days a week. As of June, that included more than 282,000 workers, of the over 367,000 working for the federal government.

Jeremy Link, a spokesperson for PSPC, said in an email that the government department takes pest-related calls very seriously, with actions taken in “a timely manner using industry approved methods.”

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“While yes, pests are a nuisance that are commonly faced in commercial real estate, we have a very robust pest management program that is incorporated into building operations,” Link said. With employees and building occupants reporting possible pests early … we are able to effectively manage, with the help of pest control professionals, the pests that do manage to enter our buildings.”

The most common pests found in federal buildings in the NCR this spring and summer were mice, with 70 confirmed cases reported. They were found in offices across the area, from the Mulligan Building on Walkley Road to the Place du Portage Phase III building in Gatineau.

There were also 26 cases of ants, 26 cases of insects, like mayflies and boxelder bugs, 14 cases of bedbugs, eight cases of birds, nine cases of bees, wasps and hornets, 18 cases of cockroaches, bugs and spiders, 10 cases of bats, 15 cases of small animals (such as rodents, squirrels and chipmunks) and one instance of a snake in an office. A handful of confirmed cases were the result of duplicate calls.

The snake, which was found in the R.H. Coats Building (Building 1) at 100 Promenade Tunney’s Pasture Driveway in July, was removed by contractors working in the area, according to PSPC.

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From inside the Carling Campus Pavilion Building, a call was made in May to share that a raccoon was trapped inside a live trap behind a teepee. It was later relocated. Chipmunks, bats and a squirrel were also found in other buildings before being released elsewhere.

In another instance, a call was made from Carling Campus Building 9, when a laptop bag inside of a plastic bag was returned to an IT department by someone in the office. According to PSPC, the bag had “several dead bedbugs” in it, though no live bedbugs were ever found.

Earlier this year, data from PSPC showed that 26 Crown-owned buildings had pests between Jan. 1 and March 31. Pests found in those buildings included mice, bedbugs, bats, ants, a skunk, raccoons and insects like silverfish, drain flies, beetles and sand ants. The presence of bedbugs, particularly, has been an ongoing issue in federal buildings, with major concerns going back to at least 2019.

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