FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Multiple families contacted WPTV seeking answers after living for months in an apartment complex they claim is infested with bats, an animal known for its potential to carry rabies.
The problem is occurring at Pine Creek Village in Fort Pierce.
Emails obtained by WPTV show the complex's management company knew about the infestation for at least nine months. However, problems persist for residents living at the complex.
WPTV reporter Kate Hussey went to the apartment to speak to the affected residents and is fighting to get help for them.
The unwelcome guests are terrorizing the complex.
"They come out hundreds at a time," resident Laiten Varner said. "My children have screamed, 'Mom, what do we do?'"
They also stink.
"It smells like urine," added another resident who didn't want to be named. "You can smell it from the time you get on the concrete to the time you get up [the stairs]."
They come over without an invite.
"I started finding them inside of my apartment," Varner said.
During WPTV's visit to the complex, we found that if you listen closely near Building 7, you can hear the continuous chatter of the bats.
"The infestation is above my apartment. They're going in right here in this little hole," Varner said while pointing at an opening at the top of her apartment building. "Thousands of them are coming out of this hole."
Varner recorded a video that showed dozens of the nocturnal mammals swarming that small opening at Building 7. Photos she also sent us showed bats clinging to the walls, ceiling and ground outside of the apartment complex — some in during the day.
She found others inside her children's bedrooms.
"Over there in these corners, we found them in those corners — in my bedroom," Varner said while showing Hussey around her apartment. "My son comes out screaming. They're in his bedroom. I've had to trap them and physically get them out of my apartment."
Another photo Varner showed WPTV showed a bat that she had been swept up and put in a dustpan.
WPTV staked out the complex ourselves and caught several flying out of the opening on camera.
Emails that Varner shared with WPTV showed that she sent the complex's property management pictures of the infestation on April 2, 2024.
Management responded that same day saying they received it. However, nine months later the unwanted squatters still haven't been evicted.
"(We're) trying to … get through it," Varner said.
"Frustrated?" asked Hussey.
"Yeah, it's tiring. It's been months and months," replied Varner. "I don't know. They told me there's nothing they can do."
"And who was that, the management company?" Hussey asked.
HEALTH CONCERNS
"Yeah," Varner said. "When I contacted the health department, they told me and my children need to be vaccinated immediately."
Medical records show Varner and her two children received multiple rabies vaccination doses this past summer, and Varner said her son, Kamryn, has had multiple asthma attacks and developed a respiratory infection that she fears could be connected to the bats infesting her home.
"He's been intubated twice," Varner said. "It's all blowing in and so whatever is up there is blowing in from my air and breathing in."
Hussey reached out to AMC Property Management which owns Pine Creek Village.
A company representative told WPTV in a statement they have "retained professionals to address the situation" and "are in contact with affected residents to respond to their concerns."
About a week later, residents sent WPTV cellphone video of a clear tarp installed above the gap in Building 7, but residents said it didn't keep the bats away and was gone just days later. That was in November.
WPTV reached back out to property management to ask what else can be done, but still, we haven't received a response, and neither has Varner nor the others.
"I've called everybody I can call, I mean, what can I do?" asked Varner.
Since then, Varner said property management recently moved her out of Building 7 and into a new unit, but days later sent us cellphone video of another bat she says she found in her new apartment.
Others still living in Building 7 say the infestation is ongoing and impacting at least three families, including multiple children.
WPTV has reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment, but they haven't responded.
We've also requested public records to see if the Health Department has asked the complex to take any action. WPTV is waiting on that, too.
