Facilities Management is playing a game of cat and mouse - with real mice.
This semester, there have been mice sightings in Goddard House and Graduate Center, but the problem is not serious, said Donna Butler, the director of custodial services. The staff is promptly responding to calls about mice in dormitories, she said, but despite their efforts, the rodents still manage to make their way into students' rooms.
Monthly baiting in trash rooms and kitchens catch some mice, and a monthly contract with New England Pest Control brings an extermination team to campus on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, said Tony Batista, operations and services manager for Facilities Management. He said prevention efforts are under control, and on days that the exterminators are not on campus, he usually looks into the call within hours.
"When Tony is made aware of a mouse issue, he addresses it immediately," Butler said.
But mice are still scurrying into students' lives. Last semester, Jeremy Stricsek '09 discovered a mouse in his room in Goddard. Facilities Management responded by laying down traps and putting steel wool in holes in the room, since mice can get into rooms through holes as small as a dime, according to Stricsek.
Stricsek didn't notice any mice getting caught in the traps, but he assumed it wouldn't be too much of a problem when he got back from winter break. But when he returned, he found large amounts of mouse droppings on shelves, the ground and other surfaces.
He quickly requested temporary housing and was able to move into Hegeman. The room was cleaned in less than two days, but Stricsek was still unhappy with the situation, and though his roommate has remained in the room, he has moved out.
"If it were someplace else, I wouldn't care so much. But it's my home, so it's different," Stricsek said.
Stricsek said other friends in the same area of the dorm have also noticed mouse droppings, but Batista said no one else has moved from their rooms this year specifically because of problems with mice.
Grad Center Tower C had similar problems in some rooms because a former resident did not remove food from her room before she moved out, according to Batista. Students leaving food out is one of the main reasons mice are attracted to rooms, he said, adding that although some of the rooms he visits for mice inspection are very neat, many of the rooms with mouse sightings tend to be messier and often have food left out in the open.
But despite those incidents, there has been no significant increase in the number of problems this year, according to Facilities Management staff.
"We've been luckier than usual because we have less construction on campus," Butler said, noting that construction often increases the number of mice that end up in the dormitories.
Last year, Hope College had problems with mice because a burst pipe required work that disturbed the mice's underground nest, Butler said, and when the Shell Station on Angell Street was demolished last semester, a number of mice were spotted in the Brown Office Building, next to the construction site.
Cold weather generally drives mice into the dorms, Butler said, but that has not been as much of an issue in recent years due to a series of mild winters.
Though the mice are an annoyance, Facilities Management says there is no way to totally eliminate the problem. "I don't really think there is a way to prevent every mouse from entering. There's no way you can seal every opening in a house," Batista said.
Batista said residents can avoid gaining furry roommates by using rubber containers for leftover food and by taking out the trash regularly. "Students not regularly taking out the trash is one of the biggest reasons there are mice in rooms," Batista said.
Stricsek said he wished he had gotten that advice earlier, and he had a number of his own suggestions for those facing a rodent invasion, including reporting it immediately.
"Also, wash the (soiled) clothes in hot water," he said.
