Maintenance says mouse complaints are no problem

A Residential Maintenance official said yesterday his office has received only nine student complaints about mice in Kings Court this year, which he said does not constitute a problem. Residential Maintenance Assistant Director Phil Genther said his office placed traps in the basement of the building to avoid a problem in Kings Court for this school year because of the renovation of English House and the demolition of the Law Dorms nearby. The nine student complaints were filed during the months of August, September, January and February. Genther said only two of these complaints were from fourth floor resident Connie Fang, who said Sunday she and her roommate have placed several complaints. Fang said the two students have caught six mice over the course of the year with glue traps they received from the Kings Court desk after filing the complaints. Fang said someone from Genther's office called her yesterday to inquire about the problem, offering to send a carpenter to to board up the hole in her roommate's closet, the place where she believes mice enter the room. "They never did anything more than give us the traps before," Fang said. "Now, they're so concerned about their image -- sending carpenters to my room and asking me if I know of anyone else with a big mouse problem." Genther said if a certain room has a chronic problem, someone from his office will go to the room to survey it, looking for a nest or a hole, which will then be removed or boarded up. Genther said exterminators went through Kings Court today for their quarter-yearly roach extermination. Exterminators reported mouse problems in Fang's room, the room directly below hers and another room on the third floor -- the same rooms Fang named when Residential Maintenance asked if she knew of any other existing problems. Genther said students sighting a mouse in their room can file a complaint at the front desk. The report goes through his office and the exterminators, who are in every second day, take glue traps to the residence. Once a mouse is caught, the students in the room can either dispose of the rodent themselves or call Residential Maintenance to have it removed. If the students choose to dispose of it themselves, they can flush it down the toilet or throw it in the trash. Genther said the glue traps are used now because of previous problems with poison. "The mice would eat the poison and crawl away to die," Genther said. "But, they would die in the walls and the students would complain, rightfully so, of the smell." "If students are opposed to the traps because they don't want to come into their room to find a live mouse stuck to the trap, they still have the option of the poison," Genther added. "But, then they run the risk of the smell." He added that the glue traps, which catch the mouse alive, are just as effective in getting rid of the mice in the end. Genther said he believes the problem may at times seem worse than it is because several students will see the same mouse and suddenly believe the building is infested. He also said he has only received one complaint of a rat in six years and that it is very rare for a rat to enter a student's room.

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