Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The crickets are still chirping at Shaganappy Apartments on Con Road.

This cricket was captured this past March by a tenant at Shaganappy apartments. Residents have been complaining about seeing and hearing the pests in Shaganappy Apartments. - NNSL file photo

Alana Biscaye moved into a two-bedroom apartment in the Northern Property REIT-owned building in February. The mother of two young children said she was never told there was a bug problem in the building and since then she said the place has been fumigated at least twice.

Biscaye said she has seen crickets in her bathroom, in the bathtub and in the sink.

"I was told those crickets can get pretty big," she said. "They can grow to two inches. One of the cabbies I was talking to said when he was in Africa they would jump all around him when he was trying to sleep."

Biscaye pays $1,655 a month to rent the apartment which doesn't include a balcony and has needed constant repairs since moving in almost a year ago, she said.

"I can hear them in the hallways on the main floor," said Biscaye. "In the summer, if I was standing outside, I'd be able to hear them even though they were inside the building."

Biscaye said she has called Northern Property about the issue but was basically brushed off.

"They said they would put it on their wish list but because it's not a health or safety issue they're not going to do anything right away," she said.

Violet Viskye, another tenant in Shaganappy, hasn't seen crickets in her apartment but has heard them in the hallways of the building.

"I haven't contacted (Northern Property) but I haven't seen them yet. My daughter used to get freaked out by them but she doesn't live with me anymore."

So far, the most recent outbreak seems to be similar to previously reported incidents last March and last June, when residents said Orkin Pest Control fumigated the building for the third month in a row.

But now the crickets are back.

"They had to get someone from Hay River to come and spray in September," said Viskye.

"Apparently one of the apartments had bed bugs as well."

Crickets aren't normally found this far North but tenants have previously speculated they escaped into the apartment building after a tenant brought them home to feed a pet lizard.

For now, Biscaye is hoping something is done about the crickets but she's not holding her breath.

"They never even told me there was crickets in the building, That should be one of the first things they tell people and they never did," she said. "My apartment has been falling apart around me."

Jenny Bruce, regional manager for Northern Property REIT since July, said so far they only had one cricket complaint on record and that was city-wide.

"It's kind of hard for us to fix it if they call the newspaper before their landlord," said Bruce.

"There's only one exterminator for the entire NWT and he's available Dec. 7 to look at it and if there's a problem we'll look into the extermination."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.