Apartment complex blames tenant for bedbug infestation

HOUSTON – An apparent bedbug infestation at an apartment complex in the Spring Branch neighborhood has one tenant desperate for help.

"They just keep coming back," said Alise, who asked that KPRC2 conceal her identity.

Alise provided KPRC2 with pictures, as well as video she said she recorded inside her apartment at the Miami Garden Apartment Complex, located at the 9500 block of Kempwood Drive. She said she and her four children moved into the apartment last December, but did not notice there were bedbugs until May.

Since then, she said the infestation has grown.

"Every day I wake up and there's a bug in my bed," Alise said.

"It's hard because I want to leave, but I can't. You can't break your lease because you have bedbugs," she continued.

Alise provided KPRC2 with an email correspondence she sent the complex's manager on Monday. Since then, she said maintenance crews have spayed some type of disinfectant, but the problem persists.

"They've come and they spray, or they bomb, but it doesn't get rid of the problem," she said.

Eventually the manager responded, according to Alise, but their encounter was anything but helpful.

"The manager tried to say I brought them with me in December, but we didn't have them until May," Alise alleged.

KPRC2 also tried to contact the manager on multiple occasions, spanning two days. Despite phone calls and voice messages, calls from our newsroom were not returned.

A KPRC2 news crew went to the apartment complex Thursday and returned Friday in an attempt to speak with a manager.

A security guard Friday called a representative from the property, per our crew's request for comment. That representative would not comment on Alise's allegations of a bedbug infestation. Instead, she instructed our crew to leave the property.