General Pest Control in Scarborough: What Insect Infestations Reveal About Its History
We at Pestbye Pest Control are on the frontlines of Scarborough’s epic struggle with crawling, creeping, stinging, swarming, and just plain yucky pests. And yet, our work on general pest control in Scarborough can feel more like an archaeological expedition than an exercise in extermination. We spend our days crawling around in Scarborough’s dwellings and buildings, investigating signs of pests and piecing together glimpses of our city’s history using clues from our centuries-long conflict with pests. Today, we shall take you on a tour through time, examining how Scarborough’s past can be divined from bugs.
The Victorian Era: A Tale of Bedbugs and Social Change
Many of the buildings in its oldest neighbourhoods, where we have been controlling bedbugs as part of our unwavering commitment to making general pest control in Scarborough as accessible to as many Canadians as possible, look as if they have not changed since the Victorian era. The re-emergence of these pests over recent decades is less about our own difficult-to-predict times and more about the nineteenth century, and it turns out that it provides a fascinating window into life in the urban past. The nineteenth century represented a significant milestone in human development that resulted in dramatic population growth but barely seems imaginable today.
It was an age of rapid urbanization that led to a perfect storm of conditions favouring bedbugs. However, the level of bedbug impact that we see playing out today is frequently reminiscent of the old-class geography of Victorian Scarborough. Areas that were once working-class communities in the eighteen hundreds often contain footprints of historic bedbugs, showing how these mobile pests have been carried through time on the back of economic struggle, imbuing us and our buildings with memories of the housing challenges we still face today.
Post-War Boom: The Steady Rise of the Suburban Pest
A short time later, as the town—and suburbs—began their rapid expansion immediately following the Second World War, they again showed up in the houses being built in the fifties and sixties. As a result of the sudden availability of affordable building materials and mass-marketed homes, humans inadvertently triggered an unprecedented boom in the carpenter ant population.
The wood-loving ants found themselves in paradise as post-war lumber enveloped the aged suburban Toronto. When it comes to general pest control in Scarborough, every time we eradicate a carpenter ant infestation in these neighbourhoods, the problem that we actually address is a pest problem that has its roots in this municipality’s astounding economic development in the post-war period.
The Multicultural Revolution: Exotic Pests and Global Connections
Indeed, it is through Scarborough that new immigrants find one of the most crucial avenues for being incorporated into the community of Toronto, which would, by now, be the most multicultural municipality in Canada. And what is the associated downside? Aside from the congestion, much of the discomforting side-effect of the arc of cultural diversity that now encompasses Scarborough is the invasion of species that came from the farthest corners of the world.
In the past two decades, Scarborough has become particularly rampant with invaders. Did you know that the proliferation of exotic tropical ant species on local properties typically correlates with greater rates of immigration from this warmer climate? And whether stowed away in suitcases or cargo containers, these determined alien ants are a testament to the bold and brazen spirit of Scarborough’s global connections. Call us now for general pest control in Scarborough!
