Responders Pest Control

I cannot speak highly enough of Derrek and his team. I own a building in Western Canada where we were hit with a massive bed bug problem from one negligent tenant. Derrek, the owner of Responders, answered our phone call at 3 AM when I was completely beside myself not knowing what to do. 10 hours later he personally came with two other employees who removed all of the furniture, and heated the entire hallway the room was in and sprayed the rest of the building. It should be noted that our building was a 4 hour drive from where Responders’ office is. He delivered on his guarantee to return for free if further treatments were needed. In fact, he returned several times for free because the company we had hired prior to Responders ( and is one of the largest pest control companies in Canada), completely botched the job the first time and caused the bed bugs in the one room to scatter.
Derrek not only eradicated our problem, he offered sincere emotional support to us and guarantees that he would fix the problem, which he did. Not to mention that his is the only company I am aware who is DISCREET! They drive unmarked trucks, they have unmarked uniforms. They even come up with a story to tell curious passerby’s on the street who wonder what the truck that pumps the heat into your building is there for. It’s shocking, but other companies we used would show up in fully marked cars and uniforms, Responders does not.
I encourage you to read my full story below to understand how bad the problem we discovered was, and how our desperation and fear of the situation caused us to make hasty mistakes that made our problem worse, until we found Responders online. If you have a major problem and it isn’t treated properly it can make the problem worse. Also, some pest companies may try to pressure you into signing a year long contract, DON’T! Some may not be able to make it to your location but will offer to “help” you, by selling you chemicals you can use to mitigate the problem. Don’t do this either, these chemicals will most likely just cause the bugs to scatter. I was really shocked at how unreputable some companies in this industry were.
We had a long term tenant in a room who was very dirty, and brought bed bugs with him. Unbeknownst to us, over the course of the six months he stayed with us the infestation in the one room he was staying in was completely out of control. I knew something was wrong, and when we entered the room his mattress was flipped up and it was evident he had been living in squalor, I’m not sure he was even sleeping in the room anymore. We discovered HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of bugs in his box spring and on his bed.
This was on a weekend, and I called one of Canada’s largest pest control companies, who I will not name, to come take care of the problem for us. The person who arrived said he has never seen a problem so bad. He sprayed the room and told us that the next day we needed to move all of the furniture out ourselves. We expressed concern about moving the furniture ourselves, but this company did not offer furniture removal.
I now know that in a case of serious infestation you CANNOT just spray, you need a heat treatment. Let me repeat that, YOU CANNOT JUST SPRAY IF YOU HAVE A LARGE INFESTATION! Spraying -whether it is with chemical you buy at home depot or whether it is a professional pest removal company- only works for very small infestations. With larger problems it will just cause the problem to scatter as the bugs flee the poision.
Why did the first company not offer to heat our building instead of just spraying? The reason is that they don’t even offer the service. From what I have read since our issue, many pest control companies are mostly equipped to deal with rodents, racoons and cockroaches. Bed bugs have made a come back and some pest control companies haven’t really updated their services to tackle large bed bug infestations.
We learned this the hard way….when we went to remove the furniture from the room, after the treatment from the first company we used, we were covered in bugs within seconds of picking up the bed frame….just the bedframe. It was almost like the room hadn’t been treated at all. We immediately vacated the room realizing there was no way we would be able to move the furniture without spreading the bugs through our entire building. I cannot describe how absolutely defeated and helpless we felt. I had already paid the first company $1000 for the treatment, and were only able to get them to come all the way to our location after agreeing to hire them on a year long contract. They essentially fleeced us and left us with no real way to help ourselves.
This is when we called Responders. It was 3 AM, we were exhausted and feeling like we were about to lose our entire business and everything we had worked years building. We called the hotline once and no answer…then we called a second time and Derrek answered. He said he knew it was serious when we called a second time. I have no words to describe the gratitude I have for Derrek as a human being. The heat treatment effectively killed everything in that room, it is intense, but that is why it works, because it kills everything.
When I asked Derrek if it was the worst infestation he’d seen, he said it was bad, but he had definitely seen worse. A much more promising response than what the first company had told me. What you’ll realize very quickly is that Derrek is very passionate about his work, and in helping people. He knows everything there is to know about bed bugs and how they behave. He taught us how to look for bugs on our own, and eventually gave us advice on how to stop the spread due to some errors we were making with our laundry facilities.
After the main treatment we kept finding loan bugs around our building, mostly due to the botched job by the first company. Every time I found something, Derrek would personally drive the 4 hours to see us and treat every room in the building. No questions asked, and at no extra cost because he guarantees his work. He was never upset about returning, and was always able to return with a day or two of us calling. Thank you Derrek, we cannot thank you enough.
I know you are freaking out, and I have been there. I would highly suggest that you call Responders to help you. My second bit of advice is that if you live in a part of the country where Responders does not operate, find a company that offers the heat treatment. These are the companies that specifically focus on bed bug removal. The heat treatment isn’t always the best solution for every problem (i.e. small problems likely only need a professional chemical treatment), but the companies that have the heat treatment as service option, are the ones that specifically deal with bed bugs and truly understand how to eradicate them. I wish you luck.