Chicken farm worker unprepared for 'seething mass' of bedbugs
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By Geoff Leo, CBC News Posted: Aug 31, 2015 5:30 AM CT Last Updated: Aug 31, 2015 5:30 AM CT
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Sean Pender says he couldn't believe his eyes when he started working at Pedigree Poultry a couple of weeks ago.
"When I get there they tell us there's going to be wood ticks. Those are not wood ticks, those are bedbugs," Pender said.
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He said they were cleaning up a barn where chickens had been laying eggs for a year. The work involved pulling out metal racks.
"You'd pull it out and let it drop and bang," Pender said. "Just a seething mass of them all over the ground...
"I ended up with [bedbugs] around the tops of my socks, just drinking blood like a whole line of them right around the top of my socks as far as they would go because I'm wearing shorts all the time."
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Dr. Jenny Fricke said bedbug infestations of poultry barns have "been reported to be increasing over recent years."
She said chicken farms provide a perfect environment for bedbugs.
"They will feed on anything with blood. So if they're introduced into a poultry barn environment there is a wealth of different hosts for them to feed upon."
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By Geoff Leo, CBC News Posted: Aug 31, 2015 5:30 AM CT Last Updated: Aug 31, 2015 5:30 AM CT
...
Sean Pender says he couldn't believe his eyes when he started working at Pedigree Poultry a couple of weeks ago.
"When I get there they tell us there's going to be wood ticks. Those are not wood ticks, those are bedbugs," Pender said.
...
He said they were cleaning up a barn where chickens had been laying eggs for a year. The work involved pulling out metal racks.
"You'd pull it out and let it drop and bang," Pender said. "Just a seething mass of them all over the ground...
"I ended up with [bedbugs] around the tops of my socks, just drinking blood like a whole line of them right around the top of my socks as far as they would go because I'm wearing shorts all the time."
...
Dr. Jenny Fricke said bedbug infestations of poultry barns have "been reported to be increasing over recent years."
She said chicken farms provide a perfect environment for bedbugs.
"They will feed on anything with blood. So if they're introduced into a poultry barn environment there is a wealth of different hosts for them to feed upon."
...