Cockroach nests bug Ottawa Community Housing residents

Some residents of an Ottawa Community Housing apartment building on Russell Road say they're fed up with ongoing pest control treatments that don't seem to be working.

Pierrette Whisselle says she's asked for a transfer to another apartment because of the ongoing cockroach problem, even though she likes everything else about her unit. (CBC )​Pierrette Whisselle has been living in an apartment at 2080 Russell Rd., near St. Laurent Boulevard, for four years, and that the cockroaches showed up not long after she moved in.

"Six months in to being here the cockroaches showed up and I've been dealing with exterminators every two weeks," Whisselle says. "... They [the exterminators] never fail. It's constant. They come in, they'll make me empty out my whole kitchen first, they'll gel, they'll put a white powder behind the fridge and the stove, they'll even spray if they have to."

She says the exterminators spend about five minutes dealing with the issue during each visit. She says she likes everything else about her apartment, but not the bugs.

Trevor Young says he's embarrassed to have guests visit. (CBC)"That's why I asked for a transfer, and hopefully that'll work. But for now, this is the only place I can afford, and I stick around and deal with it one day at a time," Whisselle says. "I already had to deal with bed bugs at one point, and now we're dealing with cockroaches, so it's always something here. It never stops."

Trevor Young has lived in the same building for about six years, and said that the cockroaches showed up two years ago. He says exterminators show up to treat his apartment about twice per month.

"There's still so many at nighttime that I can't get rid of them all," Young says. "It's very embarrassing when I have guests over to my apartment. ... If I take a cup or something form the cupboard, sometimes I'll have cockroach droppings on my dishes. 

"I can't get rid of them. ... I'm tired of this."

Ottawa Community Housing president Stephane Giguere says the organization takes pest control seriously. (CBC)Ottawa Community Housing's pest control budget has grown from $210,000 in 2007 to $875,000 in 2013. OCH president Stephane Giguere says that's due, in part, to prevention and education costs as well as treatment costs.

He says some units at the Russell Road building have undergone as many as 12 treatments, and that the complexity of insect travel patterns, finding nests and other factors are to blame.

"Pest control is a really important issue and challenge that we take seriously here at Ottawa Community Housing," Giguere says.