Mimi from Toronto

We are so glad we called Muhammad. He’s knowledgeable, thorough, experienced and effective! About three months ago I started noticing a few bites on me. At first I didn’t think much of them but then I noticed a few more. I immediately went online to do some research and pretty much freaked myself out. I asked my husband if he was getting bitten but he didn’t show any signs. Then, some days later a bite or two turned up on my husband and now it wasn’t something that was in ‘my head’. We tried to look for signs of bed bugs but knowing little about what they looked like, we couldn’t find anything. Each day I’d wake up and inspect my body and would find a new bite. It was an incredibly stressful and upsetting time. Though it was only about a week or two in my life, it felt like an eternity of sleepless nights…wondering if something was coming after me at night. I felt like I was losing my mind, over-reacting to anything and everything that resembled a possible itch. It was awful. My husband learned that if you did have a bed bug issue, that you shouldn’t try to tackle the problem on your own. You would need professional help. Being stubborn (and cheap), I went to Home Depot and spent some money on some useless sticky traps and got zero results. The bites continued so we knew we had to call in help. We weren’t sure which method we’d use. There was the obvious concern about inhaling toxic pesticide sprays and then we learned about the heating method but that made us nervous. We couldn’t imagine heating up our whole house without setting something on fire and/or damaging something. I called around and after reading some reviews on HomeStars, decided to give Muhammad a try and we’re so glad we did! Muhammad was quick to return our phone call. He got back to us that very same afternoon and then we were able to immediately book an inspection for the next day. When he arrived, he started by asking questions and asked to see our bites. He reminded me of a doctor, assessing the bites. I suppose he could’ve confirmed our suspicion right away just by looking at our bites but Muhammad wanted evidence. So he set out with his tools, and did sort of a ‘CSI inspection’ on our old wooden futon frame. With Q-tips and droplets in hand he scoured the wooden futon frame. At first nothing turned up and then I told him that I had just wiped it down with soapy water the night before (I didn’t know not to do that). With that in mind, he kept searching and found one wee-little black spot and smeared over it with his Q-tip. Then he explained that that was the evidence he needed…that the black spot suggested that there was a female bed bug. It was reassuring to know that Muhammad knew his stuff but equally disappointing since he confirmed what we had feared, that we did in fact have a case of bed bugs. But he put our mind to ease and said that we were lucky that we called him early because our case was minor and was contained in just our bedroom. (He checked our other living spaces and nothing turned up). After his inspection, he gave us the low-down. He explained that the little blood suckers liked to hide in the cracks and crevices of the futon frame. He said that to clean it would cost us way more than replacing it. So we wrapped it up right away and threw it out. That was part of the prep work he required of us before he came back the next day, to start the treatment. I have to say, I was impressed with how detail-oriented and thorough Muhammad was. He pretty much steamed and cleaned everything in our bedroom. His practice is not just about pest control but he works hard to educate his clients and put them at ease (he suggested that I stay off the internet so that I wouldn’t become paranoid). He’s a realist. The bottom line is that bed bugs are here and they’ve been here for a very long time. We might not be able to eliminate / extinguish them but what we can do is ‘manage’ the situation. And Muhammad is really good at helping to ‘manage’ that. He has an arsenal of stuff. He sold us some mattress protectors, bed bug moats and monitors. It’s now been about three months since our nightmarish bed bug episode. I waited this long to write the review because I was afraid I’d write a raving review and then they’d come back. But I’m happy to report that we haven’t had any unusual bites now for months. Yay!!! I’m glad we went to HomeStars and glad that we found Muhammad. He is a bit pricey but the truth is, I don’t know how much the other companies would’ve charged and whether we would’ve had the same results. I’m pleased with his work. He takes his company and work seriously and cares about customer satisfaction. I appreciated that Muhammad gave us options, i.e. he could’ve made way more money cleaning our futon frame vs. suggesting we get rid of it. During that stressful time, we never did see a bed bug. We still haven’t seen one (thank goodness, and pray there are none around). A conman looking to make more money could’ve taken us for a ride and told us that we needed to have our whole house treated. Muhammad was honest. After finding evidence in only our bedroom, he quoted us for the work he’d need to do in just the bedroom. If you ever suspect you might have a case of bed bugs, Muhammad is your first call. You’ll want him on your team for sure!