Cockroach nests bug Ottawa Community Housing residents
OCH pest control budget at $875K in 2013, up from $210K in 2007
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.

"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 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."

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.