Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Photo by Alisa Crider

From Mold to Mice

By Alisa Crider

awcrider@vwc.edu

It was just a typical night at VWC, filled with homework and Diet Coke. The usual array of sounds were all of a sudden interrupted by a scream from upstairs.

I grabbed my camera and sped upstairs.

Then, what I already knew was confirmed: there was a mouse in the room.

Recently there have been many accounts of mice in dorm rooms, the library, and other academic buildings on campus.

On Monday, Feb. 9 librarian Patty Clark spotted a mouse in the newly renovated library. She saw it a few times throughout a four-hour span, running around on the first level.

 It s not surprising to see a mouse in the library, when the ground surrounding the building has just been dug up and the door has been open, said Clark.

Clark had the physical plant call pest control. They were out in two days and caught the rodent.

Elaine Aird, assistant director of business operations, had a mouse in her room in the business office. The mouse came in through the door, ran around the perimeter of the room and then ran out. Aird s main concern was that her purse was on the floor, and she did not want the mouse to get inside. Aird called maintenance. They were out in no time with a few different kinds of traps to put down.

 Maintenance is my hero, said Aird.  They came every day to check the trap.

And indeed the traps worked, because over the course of that week, Aird saw many trapped mice. It got a little disturbing to her, so she asked for the traps to be moved to the kitchen in the business office. Since they moved the traps, there have not been any more mice caught.

 I certainly learned a lesson not to leave food in my office trash can, said Aird.

Tim Lockett, dining services general manager, said he has only heard students mention mice but has not seen any yet this year. He said that the cafeteria s kitchen is well-kept and all the food is sealed.

 We re on a campus with a lot of woods and temperature changes that stir them up, said Lockett.

He felt the mice typically come in through tiny holes in the walls. Mice are very agile and can actually fit through a hole the size of a dime. The only way to prevent this is to constantly plug up these holes around campus and keep any crumbs off the floor.

Junior Ebonie Toppin, RA of Teagle, admitted there was a mouse problem in her entire suite.

 There were droppings in everyone s closets, said Toppin,  so the mouse was parading around in everyone s room.

One of the residents, Kathryn Bingman, got it the worst of everyone because her room is very close to the kitchen.

Bingman heard a mouse for the first time when it was between her desk and the wall.

 The next time the mouse showed its presence, said Bingman,  was when I went to put on a pair of flats one morning ... took them out of my closet, dropped them on the floor and stuck my feet in them only to feel something weird. So, I took them back off, looked inside, and found a decent amount of droppings in my shoes.

It bothered Toppin that she also had a mouse crawling around in her room, but she didn t lose any sleep over it.

Sophomore Vanessa Botsford may have had the worst scenario of all. She had just turned off her light, put on some relaxing music and, within five minutes, was startled out of her sleep by a strange thumping and stirring sound.

 I knew then that something was in my desk, said Botsford.  I turned off my music and the sound stopped. Then in a panic, leapt out of my bed, jumping as far away as I could, turned on the light and grabbed my umbrella.

To her surprise, she heard or saw nothing after she violently poked around in her bottom drawer with her large umbrella. Feeling a little better, but still concerned, she went to sleep.

The next day she was too nervous to go back to her room alone after class, so she brought along a friend. The friend noticed a strange stench in the air and discovered mouse droppings in her bottom desk drawer. A little more searching led to the discovery of a Ramen noodle package with a giant hole bitten through. This was enough evidence for Vanessa, so she brought the issue to the attention of Residence Life.

Maintenance came to her room within 15 minutes and laid several types of traps. She then went about her day under the impression her issue was under control.

 I came back into my room that night and was shocked to see a mouse caught in the trap with its head decapitated, said Botsford.  It was the most repulsive, disturbing thing I had ever seen. I didn t even want to sleep in my room that night.

 My recommendation to students is to keep all their food either in fridge or up on a shelf, said Vanessa.  Anywhere away from the floor, because the rodents will find it.

Bruce Vaughn, vice president of operations, commented on how this mice situation was being taken care of. He mentioned that besides the physical plant working to close up gaps that mice can fit through, that VWC also has Orkin, a pest control company, working on the problem.

 Many of our buildings are on crawl spaces which allow for poison to be distributed under the buildings, said Vaughn.  Those buildings on slabs are more difficult to place poisons in. Either way, we are trying to poison or trap mice to minimize their impact on students, staff, faculty and visitors.