There are fleas in building 15, and nearby buildings. Do not move into these buildings. It is a complex-wide problem and many of our neighbors moved out in the past few months because of it.
I have hundreds of bites and scars across my legs, thighs, my back, and even my arms and my neck. For three months, I asked the management to treat the flea infestation in my unit. To give them credit, they called in pest control and they sprayed my unit with pesticide four times, and also steamed my carpet. But even with daily vacuuming to remove eggs and larvae, the fleas came back every time.
Eventually I found out that the fleas were on the outside of the building, in the stairwells, on the concrete driveway, and on the sidewalk trails near the tree line. Every time I cleaned my apartment, as soon as I went outside, fleas would jump onto my legs and I would accidentally carry them into my car and my unit.
Even worse, raccoons have made holes in the exterior of the building and they live in the crawlspace between the floors and walls of units. I would often be scared awake by chewing and screeching from the raccoons between 12am-4am. On days when raccoons hid above my ceiling, the flea numbers would jump exponentially in my apartment because the raccoons carried fleas, and debris would fall from air conditioning vents into the unit. That debris includes live fleas.
My neighbors and I asked the property managers to block off the holes in the building that the raccoons are entering through. We have asked for three months, and finally it was escalated to higher level managers and approved. Similarly, we asked for more severe flea treatments (flea-killing nematodes) and these requests had to be escalated for approval. We were recently told the treatments were approved but we don't yet have a date for when the repairs will be made.
When I first moved in during the winter I actually really liked the apartment. Although the construction quality was average and the building was a little old (poor insulation, lack of soundproofing, windows that don't close all the way, messy caulking), it was quiet and there was a lot of shade from the trees. The community was friendly. This changed in March when the infestations began. Besides fleas and raccoons, we also have termites, cockroaches, gnats, and mosquitoes.
Termites swarm in this area in April. They entered my unit from crevices in the walls and floors every few days. There are lots of baby cockroaches and gnats. After the sun sets, mosquitoes from the bayou come out and you have to close all windows because the screens don't keep them out.
It seems others have had better experience in units far away from the forest/bayou. Until the flea infestation is addressed, I would avoid building 15 and nearby buildings. We are unsure of how far the fleas have spread, as we don't have a lot of transparency for which areas need to be avoided. read more
