As BU officials finish a mouse extermination on West Campus, a number of students are now reporting that mice can be seen running through the halls of 575 Commonwealth Ave. as well.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Jeannie Vincent, who is currently living in the HoJo, said she first spotted what she thinks was a mouse rustling underneath a few papers on the floor of her room last semester. Vincent said she immediately reported the incident to the building’s Office of Residence Life.
Vincent said Buildings ‘ Grounds set several traditional mouse snap-traps around her room before Thanksgiving break, but the traps did not catch any rodents.
“I have heard tapping noises in the walls – what some of my friends also hear and consider to be mice,” she said. “It’s a big distraction from studying and sometimes even sleeping.”
Vincent said she still occasionally spots mice darting across the HoJo’s eighth-floor study lounge.
“All in all, I’d say about 10 of my friends have seen or heard evidence of mice in the building,” she said.
College of Communication sophomore Amanda Clark, who has lived at the HoJo since her freshman year, said she has also seen mice on her floor.
“I can remember my surprise the first time I observed mice in this building, but I can’t say that their sightings have increased or decreased over the past two years I’ve been here,” she said. “It just seems that their presence has become as expected as the annual influx of freshmen on campus.”
Office of Housing director Mark Robillard denied having received mouse complaints from building residents, but he said it is possible that mouse and rat populations have moved over the past year to areas in which humans live.
“With multiple sites of construction on Commonwealth Avenue, Cummington Street and Bay State Road, workers are destroying mice and rat habitats and leaving rodent species with no place to go but above ground,” he said.
But Robillard said there is no connection between the area’s mouse population and the number in HoJo.
An official from Terminix Exterminators said the construction is a threat to the mouse and rat populations’ survival in the area. But the official, who requested anonymity, said the cold weather plays an equally important role in moving mice indoors where it is warmer.
“If a pregnant female mouse knows she is going to give birth during the winter, she will go to any lengths necessary to nurture her newborn in a warm, comfortable environment – even if it means invading another species’ habitat,” the official said.
Higher birth rates inside a building may contribute to a large number of mouse reports in a short time, the official said.
Despite the reports, CAS sophomore Sarah Mahon said she has had a positive experience living in 575 and has never seen any mice.
“I’ve been living at the HoJo for almost two full semesters now, and I’ve never come across a mouse or any rodent like it,” Mahon said.
As for the species of mouse suspected in recent sightings at 575 Commonwealth Ave., the Terminix official said it is most likely a pest that commonly targets urban areas.
“Oftentimes the source of infestation in such public, populated complexes as dormitories is the common field mouse,” the official said. “The pest can be eliminated with basic snap-traps or glue boards, an amplified [and super-sticky] form of fly paper.”
Vincent said she hopes BU administrators will take more effective steps, like those on West Campus, to prevent mouse infestation if the problem worsens.
“Though B’G’s response was prompt in dealing with recent reports, I hope further measures than setting mouse traps would be taken if these sightings continue in the building,” she said.
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