For many people, only the idea of bed bugs, cockroaches or mice is enough for your skin to crawl. Now imagine finding them in a hospital.
Many of Montreal’s hospitals are aging or undergoing renovations, creating perfect spaces where bugs can prosper.
The documents obtained by CBC News show how much each important hospital spent on pest control between 2020 and the end of fiscal year 2024, with several hospitals detailing the specific incidents behind the significant peaks in the costs over the years.
Thousands of people go through these facilities every day, which can make prevention challenging.
“It’s 24/7,” said Jonathan St-Pierre, manager of Orkin Canada branch, an extermination company based on the northern coast of Montreal. “You can’t close it if you want to do a great treatment.”
The city’s hospital networks argue that cases of errors and rodents have not jeopardized patient safety, but a variety of factors make maintaining pests a persistent challenge.
Concentrating exactly where they come from can also be difficult.
“Rats are much more difficult than mice because they are smarter,” said St-Pierre.
“We have to find where they come from and in a place like a hospital, there are many old pipes, corners and cracks and the doors are often open.”
Patients can carry insects in
The most common type of pests in hospitals are rats, mice, cockroaches and bed bugs.
Patients can carry it without knowing the bed bugs to the hospital with them in their clothes or their luggage, said St-Pierre.
If there is an outbreak, sometimes you may need more than one treatment to get rid of them.
Some detective work is needed to find the source of an outbreak, but exterminators often receive clues from the hospital staff or patients who may have seen a cockroach in a corner or a mouse running down a hall.
Once the source of the problem is found, St-Pierre said that their technicians try to find a form free of chemicals to get rid of them.
If a decision is made to use pesticides, there are strict rules about what can be used, after all, it is a hospital, and the administration has to grant technicians a special permit.
“Every time we use a pesticide in an operating room, we close it for 48 hours, which is a big problem because, as we know, our hospitals need their operations rooms,” said St-Pierre.
Climbing costs show the documents
CBC Montreal made a request for access to the information of the Regional Health Boards that supervise about 20 hospitals in Greater Montreal to find out how much was spent on the control of pests between 2020 and the end of fiscal year 2024-25.
During that time, more than $ 1 million were spent in total in pest control.
But it is difficult to compare the costs in hospitals due to the differences in the size and age of the establishment.
For example, the McGill University Health Center spends about $ 50,000 a year in pest control alone on the Glen site, but it is three times the size of the other hospitals that supervises Muhc combined.
Even so, it was possible to see if there was a sudden jump in spending for a specific hospital in a given year.
CBC requested interviews with regional health boards that had the greatest increases in pest control costs. They directed Santé Québec, which later directed us again to the Regional Health Boards. No one gave CBC an interview.
Chu Sainte-Justine saw the most dramatic increase in 2024. Between 2020 and the end of 2023, the Pediatric Hospital spent an average of $ 12,500 a year in pest control. That amount grew to more than $ 67,000 in 2024.
Despite the preventive measures, the hospital, which opened in its current location in Costa Sainte-Catherine in 1957, confirmed that cockroaches were found in certain areas of their food service last summer.
“This episode required rapid treatment, as well as proactive control measures,” Danika Landry, Chu Sainte-Justine spokesman, told CBC. The hospital rejected an interview in the camera.
“At no time the experts perceived some risk to the health and safety of patients, families and staff,” Landry said.
Orkin Canada did not reveal with which hospitals he had contracts, but said that the age of a building can hinder pest management.
A few years ago, a hospital had a problem with wasps in the operating room. It turns out that insects could cross a crack in the window, said St-Pierre.
Mice and rats can also slide in the building if a new wing or extension is being built.
“As soon as I get to construction or in the building, you will get a spike,” said St-Pierre, who said it is important that hospitals remain proactive.
That can mean weekly inspections to verify the sticky traps for insects or monitor mouse droppings.
“We put many monitoring systems so that we can monitor what is coming so that we know beforehand before having an infestation,” said St-Pierre.
Rodent problems during construction
The Ciusss de l’Est-de-l’île-de-Montréal saw a significant jump in the amount spent on pest control for the two hospitals that supervises in recent years.
The costs of the MaisonEuve-Rosemont hospital almost doubled between 2023-24 and fiscal year 2024-25 of approximately $ 25,000 a year by just under $ 50,000.
The Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, whose facilities date back to the 1950s, serves almost a third of the population of Montreal. It was supposed that a highly anticipated renewal of the aging hospital would begin last year, but it was delayed until this summer. Last month, the province said the construction can be delayed Even further.
The buildings of the Santa Cabrini hospital date back to 1960. The pest control costs there increased from $ 18,000 in 2023-24 to almost $ 26,000 by 2024-25.
“We have increased prevention to have a good control network,” said Luc Fortin, advisor to relations with the media and public issues of the Ciusss de l’Est-l’île-de-Montréal.
The increase in general costs also explain the increase, particularly in Santa Cabrini, which has had the continuous construction of a new surgical block since January 2023.
The specific controls between the old building and the new building increased from one to two visits per week to prevent rodents from entering, Fortin said. Construction It is expected to end this summer.
Pest control costs also shot at the Sacré-Cœur hospital while renewing in 2022.
That year, the Regional Health Board spent almost $ 52,000, almost double what it spent in 2021, according to documents.
“The many renovations made in our facilities generated a necessary increase in the frequency of visits to the exterminator,” said Béatrice Gougeon, spokesman for the ciusss du nord-de-l’île-de-monterréal, which supervises the sacrérré-cœur.
Gougeon said rodents were the main pests led by these interventions.
The past fall, The Presse reported that the presence of flies and shellfish in the surgical wing in Sacré-Cœur announced some operations rooms.
Gougeon said there were 10 pest management incidents related to operational theater in 2024, but not all were linked to a type of pests.
“If a fly or a ladybug is present during an operation, our teams make sure the situation is under control,” said Gougeon in an email. “After surgery, we call an exterminator. The safety of employees and users is never compromised and the establishment is always proactive.”
Preventive recommendations
To avoid future outbreaks, cleaning is always at the top of the list.
“Do not leave food, not leave food in the patient’s room, not leave food in the garbage cans for too long because it smells and attract them,” said St-Pierre.
It also recommends that hospitals clean their food cars after each service and try to keep the doors of the rooms closed if they are not in use.
But some hospitals have load docks where supplies are brought. These areas often do not have air conditioning in the summer and the doors are left open to let the air circulate.
“When you arrive at the nights, nights and early mornings, that’s where rodents are the most active,” said St-Pierre.
Their teams advise the staff to check the delivery palettes before they bring them to the hospital because mice often move away there.
He understands that some people can see an exterminator and get nervous, but St-Pierre said that maintenance and prevention are really good, because it means that the hospital is being proactive.
