Katy Lake, an idyllic, scenic neighborhood consisting of a couple of dozen homes in the North Texas town of Waxahachie, has become much less peaceful in the past few weeks. Residents of Katy Lake face a troublesome infestation, the likes of which they have never seen before.
Swarms of gnats have taken over the area, even overrunning the air inside homes.
Homeowner Tom Hoffman said to NBC 5, “Take your worst day camping, with bugs and flies, multiply it by 100, and that’s what we’re living in our houses, not outside, in our houses.”
Residents tried to deal with the infestation themselves, but control methods do not seem to do much good. Fly ribbons and bug zappers get overwhelmed by the neverending swarms.
Hoffman and other residents first started discussing the problem amongst themselves back in April and spent hundreds of dollars trying to mitigate it.
“We can’t continue to live this way,” said Hoffman. “My wife had surgery. She’s had three casts on. Each one that they’ve taken off, she’s had gnats inside of her cast.”
Waxahachie officials say the gnats are likely coming from a nearby plastic recycling facility that rents a warehouse on private property.
Communicating through a representative, the property owner told NBC 5 that the recycling company moved into the warehouse just a couple of months ago when the gnat crisis began.
When an NBC 5 news crew visited the warehouse to investigate, no one was available to answer the door. The news crew noticed gnats escaping from holes in the warehouse’s exterior.
The property owner’s representative told NBC 5 that the recycling company has 30 days to either treat the problem or vacate the premises.
