HOUSTON—Residents in southwest Houston area fed up with bedbugs.
"They bite my mom like every single night," said apartment resident Julia Hernandez. "They come out like 2 a.m. or 3 a.m."
For the past six months, Hernandez and her mother have shared their home with the hardy little creatures.
"It’s blood from where we killed it," she said, pointing to spots on her bed.
Experts say the blood-sucking critters like to gather in mattress seams and on walls.
Raleigh Jenkins, an exterminator with ABC Pest Control, said bedbugs have hitchhiked their way to Houston.
"There’s a resurgence of bedbugs over the last five years that we’ve never seen before," he said.
Jenkins said the bugs travel on clothing and bags and are commonly found in hotels and apartment complexes.
"These insects will go through the light switch covers and electrical covers and go into the apartments next door," Jenkins said.
That’s exactly what neighbors in the southwest Houston apartment complex said.
According to some of the tenants, the management office had the complex sprayed, but not enough to take care of the infestation. Since many can’t afford the $600 or so it takes to hire a skilled exterminator, they just throw out their mattresses and furniture.
