Cockroaches a 3-year nuisance for tenants in Yellowknife building

Tenants of a downtown Yellowknife apartment building say they're fed up with a cockroach infestation that just won't go away.

Residents of Northern Property REIT's Hudson House apartment buildingsay cockroaches have been a problem therefor three years.

CBC News spoke with four tenants at Hudson House.Two of them would not talk publicly out of fear of losing their lease.

Gordon Murray had no such qualms.

"I am going to be the worst pain in the derriere that Northern Property has run across," he says. "I want to get their attention."

An exterminator has applied a gel-based pesticide fourtimes this year. Murray says the gel is not working.

He said hewants his landlordto fumigate the building.

"They will have to put up 18 to20 families for a weekand they will have to bring not just one guy with a caulking gun from Edmonton, but they'll have to bring a truck here, a vacuum truck."

Cheril Lim says she sees10 to15 cockroaches a day in her unit, mostly at night.

She says she has abandoned her kitchen andthrown out her couch.

She has lived out of boxes since December. She says she doesn't want to unpack until thebugs are gone.

"We can't really move either, because we are scared we will transfer the cockroaches to another place," she said.

Another round of pesticide this week

Northern Property REIT says itwill look into fumigating, but says it trusts that the pest controlcompanyknows what it's doing. The exterminator will apply the gelto the entire buildingagain on Friday.

Peter Workman, chief environmental officer withN.W.T.'s Departmentof Health and Social Services, says he's satisfiedthe landlord is dealing with the problem.

"From what I have seen from the information, this is something that is ongoing, and they are dealing with the situation as they can."

The N.W.T.Rental Officesays it has received complaints about the cockroaches, and is holding a hearing on the matter.

One-bedroom unitsin thebuildingrent for $1,300 a month.