Dorm residents around campus have reported widespread mouse infestations this winter, with Lewis Hall appearing to be the most dramatically affected.
The problem is perennial and has been occurring on campus for a number of years.
In Lewis, at least 25 residents have complained of mouse infestations, according to one resident who requested anonymity because of an agreement with the Office of Residential Life and Learning.
Sophomore Nick Welch, a Lewis resident, said he found a dead mouse in his laundry about four weeks ago. "The laundry had been there for three weeks or so," he said, noting that a foul smell had begun to pervade the room.
After doing some digging, Welch found a dead mouse sitting on top of a T-shirt. "Then I washed my clothes four times," Welch said.
Welch's resident assistant, senior Marcus Boggis, said that he has submitted numerous reports to Facilities describing the problem.
"Then they'll come and set up mousetraps, but that doesn't fix the problems," Boggis said.
Boggis said that Facilities staff will generally set up a few traps at a time. He said that on the first night he had the traps in his room, all four of them went off.
Director of Medford Facilities Ron Esposito said that, after hearing the complaints from Lewis Hall, he is ready to take preventive measures with the building for next year.
"We're probably at a point now where we seriously have to consider doing it because that's at a point now where we're not happy with it," Esposito said.
For this type of prevention, Facilities conducts exclusionary measures every year on buildings with marked mouse-infestation problems.
"When we have issues where we know a particular building has been an issue in the past we do exclusion work where we try to block the paths where [mice] get in," Esposito said.
The Lewis infestation is widespread on the dormitory's first and second floors, and Boggis noted that one room of residents has caught seven mice. He said the problem has worsened since winter break and that it does not seem to be improving.
"Now there's just so many," Boggis said. "You'll be trying to sleep and hear a mouse crawling through your desk."
Boggis hopes the problem will fix itself to some degree as the weather warms this spring.
Esposito said mice are a common annual problem on campus, and different buildings are affected each year.
"Especially in the wintertime, they look for a place to go to preserve themselves," Esposito said. "They're animals, and they're acting on those instincts. It happens fairly routinely. Do we like it? No. We go after them aggressively."
Esposito said he feels sorry for students who have to deal with the infestation and that Facilities is doing its best to correct the problem.
"It's just a shame. I hate hearing stories like that," Esposito said. "That's the kind of stuff we're trying to avoid."
Facilities uses an outside pest-control contractor, All Star Pest Control in Somerville, to handle infestation problems.
"It's a difficult problem for everybody and we're not exempt," Esposito said. "We try to manage it. That's why we dial up a contractor five days a week doing mice and insect control."
He said that standard protocol for dealing with mice is to put down mousetraps. There are three ways to deal with an infestation of mice: spraying, baiting or putting down traps.
Esposito said that Facilities never sprays poison because of the health issues associated with using poisons.
Facilities also does not utilize baiting, a process in which mouse feed is poisoned, because it often leaves dead mice behind walls. This is a larger problem than live mice, Esposito said.
Using mousetraps has "worked time and time again over and over the years," Esposito said. "That's what the contractors and pest professionals recommend, and that's what we do. We very, very rarely bait during the year."
He also said that pest-control contractors check the building multiple times per week.
"There is a re-check of the building going on throughout the week," Esposito said.
Before Esposito enacts the exclusionary prevention in Lewis that may be necessary, he said he wants first to discuss the actions with All Star Pest Control.
"Believe me, there's no hesitation to [enact the exclusionary measures]. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page here," Esposito said.
Esposito acknowledged that preventive measures over the summer do not completely eradicate mouse problems from dormitories.
"There are bad stories to these situations, and I'm sympathetic as heck, but I don't know what to tell them," Esposito said.
"I don't know what more to do," Esposito said. "Once they get in, it takes time to get them out."
Additional mouse problems have been reported in Wilson House and Latin Way.
Sophomore Jen Lau, a Wilson House resident, said she and other residents dealt with mice in November.
"The only reason we knew we had mousetraps was [that] they caught the mouse," Lau said. "We didn't even know we had a mouse problem until we smelled a dead mouse rotting under my friend's desk."
Senior Jessie Waters found a mouse in her Latin Way room late at night about two weeks ago. She said she spotted a small mouse in a friend's shoe and contacted Facilities, which laid mousetraps.
"I was freaking out because I didn't want to sleep in my room with the mouse," Waters said. She said that her friend eventually caught the mouse in a measuring cup.
Esposito said he is not surprised that the problem is campus-wide. "We've had mice in Hillsides, we've had mice in Lewis, we've had mice in South, we've had mice in Metcalf, we've had mice in Wren ... they are here around the campus," Esposito said. "There are too many reasons for them to be here around the campus."
He said that the presence of dining halls and the campus' proximity to railroad tracks indicate that mice will continue to be a problem here on campus. He noted that they are a problem throughout New England.
Esposito said he has had his own mouse problems at a house he owns in New Hampshire.
"You could live in one of the nicest suburbs around Boston, and you have field mice," he said.
