AN INFESTATION OF BUGS – known in Bajan vernacular as chinks or chiggers – has hit the benches at the Fairchild Street Bus Terminal in Bridgetown.
After failed attempts by the Ministry of Health to eradicate the persistent pests, the Transport Board has now taken the decision to remove the benches which were installed when the terminal was reopened in the 1980s.
Irate commuters – some of whom reported being bitten by the pests – said the terminal had not received a good cleaning since it was opened and some of them had even carried the pests home with them.
Here are some online readers’ complaints.
Aquarius RoseAnn: This is ridiculous!!!! So these seats were never cleaned since they were put there? Not only inside but outside the terminal needs to be fumigated. Men urinating on the outside on the walls. The bathrooms are horrendous.
Mieshell Burke: I bring them home and my house, my bed, everything, was infested with them. They are chinks. Haven’t seen those things since I was a child. Them bite up all the back of my legs and I am so frighten to go in that bus terminal.
Wade Forde: The whole terminal needs treating, not only the seats. This is ridiculous.
Tamar-Cherie Clarke: This was happening long ago. Many times my leg had huge bumps and was red for weeks from those bugs. Last month it happened to me on the bus. I was itching the whole ride. My question is, will they be treating the bus seats as well?
Krystel Shepherd: The whole terminal needs cleaning, hand rails want painting, walls need scrubbing.
Ro-Sita Avonda: The bus terminal has plenty openings where the pigeons are able to fly in at their leisure. I believe these birds carry mites.
Sien Lieu: They will replace the benches but the same thing will happen again. That terminal needs to be sanitised every morning after 12 when the terminal is closed.
There are thousands of persons who frequent the terminal and it’s a dangerous thing not to clean those seats every day. That problem was there since last year. I have experienced the itching if my skin touches the wood; so have my children.
There is no maintenance system in Barbados, that is why we have such problems. Not only the benches, but the area where the birds perch should be powerwashed every month. There is an insect that also comes from birds. We have a lot of persons in positions that are not managing or supervising their agencies.
Sherrylyn Toppin is The Nation’s Online Editor.