The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: News

Media Credit: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION JIM DIFFLY Reed Hall displayed an informational flyer earlier this semester telling residents how to manage and deter ants from coming into dorms. [Click to enlarge]

Vinegar, roach traps and sprays - for Raine Miller and his Reed Hall roommates, it seemed they had tried everything to get rid of the trails of ants that flow through their first floor suite.

Miller and his roommates once tried dousing vinegar along the perimeter of their common room to "direct them out the door," but the ants came marching, one by one, back into the suite.

When the problem began last year, Miller said his roommate filed work orders, but "nothing really effective has worked," said Miller, a junior from Greenville, Ga., who said Housing tried different exterminating sprays to rid of the unwanted insect guests. "[The ants] come out of the shower nozzle now."

Miller and his roommates aren't alone in fighting off the dorm space invaders.

With 7,000 beds, 20 dorm buildings and 2 million square feet, "it's not unusual to have these concerns in regard to pests," said Gerard Kowalski, the executive director of Housing.

Around campus, work orders reportpests - ants, gnats, lady bugs and sometimes rats - festering in dorm rooms, closets and bathrooms.

'A million corpses in my freezer'

In work orders obtained by The Red & Black spanning August 2008 to March 2009, certain dorms had many complaints. 1512 had 93 pest-related work orders and Reed had 75. Smaller dorms had less by comparison, like Soule's 9 complaints.

From some of the work orders:

- Building 1512, Room 524B: (8/19/08) Resident reports serious ant infestation of bedroom.

- Brumby, Room 531: (8/20/08) Students are getting bit by some type of bug. Please find out what it is and spray. It may be fleas because they cannot see them.

- Reed Hall, Room 229: (08/21/08 - 08/27/08) We need pest control! In the past two days, my roommate and I have seen a large roach and a large spider in the room. We killed both, but we are concerned about this frequency of seeing pests. The spider was in the bedroom, and the roach was in the bathroom. Please come and address the situation. Thank you.

- Building 1512, Room 226D: (08/26/08) I have sighted insects (mainly ants and roaches) in 1512-226D in my room, bathroom, and kitchen area on more than one occasion. This is, in my opinion, an unecessary [sic] and unsanitary condition to be living with. I shouldn't have to be responsible for this problem and deal with it myself with storebought sprays. I believe that it is the responsibility of the University to ensure that we don't have these issues to begin with. It would be greatly appreciated if something could be done about this problem IMMEDIATELY.

- Building 1512, Room 424: (9/02/08) - resident states that ants are not present every day, but that on occasion the room is swarmed with them. resident would like the room treated for ants.

- Brumby, Room 545: (11/07/08) terrible lady bug problem. It's disgusting. W don't know how they're getting in. Please caulk windows or check vent. Residents will be there for a good part of tomorrow (Friday) so feel free to call.

- Building 1512, Room 221B: (12/01/08) I have little baby ants in my 1512-221B room, not sure where they came from. I got back from the break and they were here. I've sprayed and they have yet to go anywhere, if there is anything that can be done I would greatly appreciate it because they are driving me crazy!! Thanks!!

- Reed Hall, Room 234: (12/01/08 - 01/16/09) We have ants coming out of REED-234 our bathroom window! I have sprayed them but they still continue to come in through the window from outside. They also seem to be in the shower faucet. We have ANTS everywhere!! I've sprayed and we have cleaned continuously! Please help!

- Building 1512, Room 623: (1/07/09) I came back from the break and there are ants everywhere! My entire apartment was left clean so I don't know what they are after. There were about a million corpses in my freezer alone. I cleaned up the bodies of the deceased. There are live ants walking around. Still everywhere.

- Reed Hall: (1/12/09- 1/28/09) there are beginning to be a presence of ants in my REED-140office. Could you please have the pest control staff come out an treat the Residence Hall Director's office, the Resource Room(#140), Conference Room(#139), and Mailroom(#136).

Crawling for food sources

Kowalski indicated certain dorms - particularly ones with more kitchens around the buildings, such as the apartment-style Reed Hall and the East Campus dorms --- have a higher incidence of pest complaints, because the critters are after food sources.

"1512, that's a building where we anticipate different pest issues because the kitchens are conditions for pests. There are a higher set of work orders for the residents," Kowalski said.

"One of the things that's part of our protocol is a visual inspection for whether or not there are cleanliness issues for pest issues. If it's a public area and spilled soda in vending area, coming for the syrup. If that particular request is coming from a student room, we inquire about food," Kowalski said. "In places like ECV with kitchen areas, we ask are they keeping it clean, is any food out, are people leaving dishes in sink too long that pests could to be attracted to? We help with their housekeeping services. And then of course, if we do need to, we bring the contractor for pest control."

Kowalski said Housing uses an outside contractor for extermination, which typically utilizes sprays and other techniques to treat building exteriors and boundaries. When the exterminator treats individual rooms, Housing will communicate with students to let them know if they need to move furniture or make any other necessary changes.

"If does involve a student having to leave a room, we'll come with them. We don't have to use those techniques frequently, and it probably doesn't mean [the exterminators] will be there for more than a few minutes," Kowalski said.

But Luke Lee, a sophomore from Duluth, did not attribute his ant problem to food in his Reed Hall suite. When the problem began last year, the ants randomly "came out of the ceiling, and there was no food laying around," said Lee, who has lived in his suite for two years. Despite the problems of the previous year, Lee has not seen any ants this year.

Miller does not attribute the revisiting ants to food in his Reed Hall suite.

"It's not food [as the culprit], they just love Reed," he said, adding that he and his roommates have taken to scrubbing out their trash cans regularly to deter ants.

Like Miller, Hudson Greer said he did not think the ants were after the food sources in his Reed suite, because he and his roommate cleaned their trash cans. Greer, a freshman from Lovejoy, said they had taken to using "roach motels" or traps, that the Reed Hall office had given residents to deal with ant problems.

To every season turns a different pest

Certain seasons affect the activity of specific pests. For example, springtime sees ladybugs, gnats, ants active as temperatures rise above 60 degrees, while fall sees rodents, ants and ladybugs move indoors as temperatures drop, according to Orkin's pest control Web site.

Kowalski attributed the season changes to problems in the dorms.

"We'll see roaches at beginning of the year, in number of buildings. Roaches find their way in paper bags and boxes, when people are moving in," he said. "Students unknowingly are bringing them in to the residence halls, so we see a bit of a spike in roach complaints at beginning of year."

In the springtime, students in the high rise dorms often open their windows, opening a pathway for new neighbors - ladybugs.

"We vacuum up swarms of ladybugs," and transport the bugs outside, where they are helpful to the environment, Kowalski said.

A mouse in the house

Rodents have also nestled their way into some dorm buildings. Though not as high in numbers as some of the other pests, the rodents have found their way around campus.

From the work orders:

- Vandiver Hall, 212:(08/13/08-08/18/08) Resident reports she's seen a mouse in her kitchen on two occassions[sic].

- Vandiver Hall, 212: (09/19/08-- 09/29/08 )There is a mouse in our dorm, and is always in room C at night. We had another one in our room earlier in the year but this is a different one.

- Rutherford Hall, Room 016: (10/29/08-- 10/31/08I think I have a rodent in RUTH-016my heater unit. It comes and goes through out the day. I think it's gnawing/scratching on the metal pipes or something. Can you please come check it out?Thank you!

- Soule, Room 101: (01/08/09) The resident found a rat in the A/C vent.

"It is very rare that we see rodents in the residence halls," Kowalski said. He attributed Housing's scarce rodent complaints to the deep cleaning processes the department uses during the summer. "We try to get into all the rooms and the times when they're unoccupied...we're vacuuming, counter tops, desktops, cleaning trying to remove conditions favorable for breeding pests. We're using In-depth cleaning intentionally, and summer is best time for us to [deep] clean," he said.

Unwelcoming the recurring visitors

Certain rooms recurring pest problems, Kowalski said, "I think that if we have a recurring problem with regard to pests, that's when we want to get our custodial supervisor involved and residence life staff involved," he said. " We ask ourselves, are we doing everything we can, and are students doing everything they can to minimize the conditions for pests to return? If you've got four people living in apartment over there,some may not be holding up their end."

Kowalski said the time frame for completing pest-related work orders is "the same timeline we have for general routine requests. We try to get back within a couple days to a student and figure out what the problem is," he said.

The delay between the complaint date and the completion date on the work orders can often be attributed to backlogged paperwork.

"Work orders might show when times when a work order has been addressed, but they're not closed out in our system... sometimes staff are not immediately closing out the system," Kowalski said. "We're working on that, they're doing their job, sometimes the paperwork is delayed."

Kowalski said Housing will "continue to work hard to minimize conditions conducive to pests," but ultimately, "we need a partnership with students to keep private areas clean. Students need to hold up their end."

Meanwhile, some students have all but given up on the creepy-crawlers that inhabit their rooms.

Though he cites his past three years in Reed Hall as a pleasant place to live, Miller summed up his approach to his ant neighbors: "I've just learned to be more welcoming."

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