You are sitting in your room, munching away on a brownie recently snuck from Dewick. You hear a noise and look up from your paper, only to see a mouse scuttle across your floor.
It just ran across the floor and under my roommate's bed," said Caitlin Stone, a junior living in Latin Way apartments. "We called the TUPD [Tufts University Police Department] because that's what someone told us to do. They came and set traps." She and her roommate have not seen the mouse since.
The rodent problem at Tufts, although annoying to some, is not yet considered an epidemic. So far this year, Facilities has received 45 complaints of mice indoors on campus. Most have been in residences, but a few have been in other buildings such as Paige and Ballou.
Facilities fields phone calls from students and then sends out an exterminator from Ecolab, who is on campus three times a week. "We give him his orders and send him out," said a receptionist at Facilities.
The exterminator generally sprays with a rodenticide in the areas where signs of mouse habitation can be found. These include fresh teeth marks and mouse droppings. Although the exterminator sprays areas where evidence of rodents is present, this does not always solve the larger-scale problem.
"Sometimes, students don't want their room to be treated," the receptionist said. "It makes it difficult to get rid of a mouse because it will stay out of the treated room, but start living in the untreated one."
Many students are worried about the ways mice can enter their rooms. Matt Schuman, a junior living in Latin Way, reported a mouse in his room. "It could get in really easily under our door, so if it becomes a problem, we are going to buy traps or glue boards," he said.
The exterminator takes measures to close any holes that rodents could squeeze through. According to the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, closing up these holes is extremely important because mice can squeeze through holes a quarter of an inch wide or bigger. That means if your window screens do not fit or your door does not make a tight seal with the threshold, mice can get in.
Another problem on campus this semester has been bugs, especially spiders and roaches. Mike, a Hodgdon resident, said his entire hall was full of spiders.
"We would vacuum the room and three days later there would be webs all over the place," he said. "You could see [the spiders] while walking down hall. One night, I was so grossed out by the spiders on my bed that I went to my sister's house to sleep."
One of his hall mates called Facilities, who sent the exterminator. For the most part, the spiders have been taken care of, though they're not completely eradicated. "One of my hall mates saw a spider today," Mike said.
In addition to the rodent and spider sightings, Facilities has received 22 complaints this semester about roaches. To combat the pests, the exterminator usually puts pesticides in the cracks where the roaches live.
Roaches tend to be a problem wherever people live, mostly because they are so hardy. According to the University of Delaware's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, roaches will eat anything from milk, to postage stamp glue, to human fingernails and toenails while the owner sleeps. They only need to eat about once a month, and drink about once a week.
For those who wish to remove roaches on their own, www.eHow.com suggests scattering boric acid where the roaches are usually seen. The acid sticks to the insects' legs, and when the roaches clean themselves, they ingest the boric acid, which kills them. Boric acid, although soothing to the eyes, is also deadly to humans if ingested, so don't use it around food.
Another suggestion eHow gives is to mix baking soda and powdered sugar in equal parts, and then leave it out for your uninvited guests. Roaches love sugar and will ingest the fatal baking soda along with it. However, this may have the undesired side effect of ants or other bugs if left out too long.
