A group of Halifax seniors say they are at their wit’s end after dealing with a bedbug-infested building for years.

“I have panic attacks over them,” says Charlene Meisner, who lives at the Gordon B. Isnor Manor in the city’s north end.

Meisner says the tiny tenants have taken up residence in her apartment and others.

“I walked into a friend’s place last night. His whole mattress is covered in blood, he was bitten that bad,” she says.

When Meisner isn’t scratching at her bedbug bites, she is on the lookout for other pests.

“Out of the radiator, I’ve seen three mice continuously come out.”

The building is managed by the Metropolitan Regional Hospital Authority. General manager Janet Burt-Gerrans says new measures will soon be taken to control the pest problem, including changes to the building’s infrastructure and educational programs for tenants.

“In my nine months as general manager with this organization, I quickly identified this as our number one priority,” says Burt-Gerrans.

Meisner says pest control has been brought in over the years, but it isn’t helping.

“They have a gentleman come in spraying and he says he can’t keep up, this is the busiest,” she says. “All the manors, the three manors here are just filled.”

“In a large multi-unit building, one of the biggest issues is the vast amount of people in different units,” says pest control expert John Zinck. “You can’t just isolate one unit. It has to be looked at as a whole problem.”

Most of the tenants are low-income seniors who feel the province is to blame for the pest problem, but some say the tenants themselves are also part of the problem.

“People going through people’s garbage and bringing more dirt into the building, that’s not helping either,” says tenant Ann Frame.

Margaret Sutherland says she has never seen a bedbug in her apartment, and she spends a good part of her week making sure it stays that way.

“Everything gets moved around…box spring, mattress, everything comes off.”

Burt-Gerrans says she isn’t certain when the new ‘innovative methods’ will be introduced at Gordon B. Isnor Manor, but she hopes it will happen before the end of the year.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Alyse Hand