I have had an extremely terrible experience living here. I want to preface this by saying that I have lived in numerous bad places including a former convent where there were spiders, as well as an outdoor room converted to a bedroom, and basement apartment but in all cases it was doable and bug spray took care of the job and had minimal complaints. This has been the WORST bug experience of my life and I am on an upper level apartment.
I have been dealing with a wasp issue for several months that has been extremely stressful. Since it started, I have had upwards of 25-30 wasps enter my apartment, in my bathroom, living room and bedroom. Several mornings, I was terrified to shower so that if I took my glasses off I couldn't see where the wasps were in the bathroom. Maintenance has been very nice and put screens up on my vents and they have always been extremely helpful, but management here could be better. I have continued to get wasps in my apartment despite these fixes. I have noticed them coming in from the fans, the vents, the light fixtures. I have emailed the manager numerous times and have yet to see an actual exterminator come out to look at my apartment. I was told he came when I wasn't there, yet have no proof and was told there was nothing wrong at the time with my apartment. I decided to do reading on my own and you should never cover up a wasp issue because they can invade the walls, build nests and eat the drywall. This morning I finally saw the hole in the building where the wasps are entering on the roof. This likely explains why I was getting wasps coming out of my venting system in my apartment as well as the light fixtures!! I have lived with spiders in my apartment before and other bugs, but this has by far been the absolute worst experience as I am trying to do work and study and I hear buzzing. Even now as I am trying to go to sleep, I hear buzzing from the vents and it's terrifying.
Prior to the wasp issue, I had a horrible fly problem where I was getting on average 10 large flies entering my apartment a day for a few months. Again they were coming in from the vents. Prior to the fly issue, I had a flea issue with the former management. A large bag of rotting garbage was left in a room downstairs and caused tiny fleas to enter the venting system of the whole building. I would set out traps and get 30-40 fleas in my traps. Former management at that time resolved the issue and I moved past it.
Furthermore, I second the post below with regards to the ants. I have never in my life had so many ants in my apartment, coming out all of the cracks on the ceilings, floors, my nightstand, lamps. Vacuumed my window sill 2 weeks ago and there are 15 dead ants on the ledge. Again emailed management and was told they would go away. They sprayed bug spray and it helps somewhat. The major problem with this building was that it was VERY POORLY CONSTRUCTED so there is NO caulk. I have gaps in the floorboards in every room and there are cracks in the ceiling that allow these bugs to enter.
To be complete in my description, there are also numerous spiders in the garage area and first floor. I understand this is common in garages and such, but I have had two instances where I almost walked into a spider hanging down from the light switches in my garage or in the hallways downstairs.
In addition, in the last 4-5 months there has been an uptick in random gunshots. Sometimes, they have waken me up in the middle of the night. Not all of them have registered with Case Western Reserve University, but it is making me feel unsafe. I have often heard several shots and then a car drive past. Let me be clear these are not fireworks. I have heard fireworks sometimes and the gunshot noises are distinct.
The package situation has improved, but is still somewhat nightmarish as you have to drive to another location to pick up your packages and amazon and friends don't always know this. I often have to hunt for packages around my building as they can be dropped anywhere around the buildings or in the package room. I have not had too many packages stolen although I did have a friend who had a nice item stolen from the package room. After said instant, they apparently did put a "working" camera in the package room that will record. The last one wasn't recording at the time of the incident.
The positives are being close to the hospital, having a garage in the winter, the open floor plan with large island. But even despite these positives, I have had difficulties. The guy who plowed the snow, plowed it directly in front of my garage and it froze solid and I couldn't get out. In my work outfit, I had to go running to chase him down in the 3 feet snow on the sidewalk and then work to chisel my way out. Furthermore, there is barely any room to get your car out when you try to exit and I did clip my car once while exiting on the stone rocks.
To conclude, I thoroughly regret my decision to move here. read more