Mouse found in North Complex; students question cleanliness

While sharing a room and living in the tight quarters in the dorms, students are encouraged by University Housing to keep their rooms clean to prevent unwanted pests in the resident halls. It’s common to see pests infiltrating homes here in Daytona, thanks to the warm and humid weather.

However, earlier this semester, Mickelson hall had a mouse running through the fourth floor, which has since been removed from the hall.

It is unknown how the mouse got into the building, but Jaden Braaten, a first-year media and journalism major, said she believes it could have gotten in through the air conditioning or the construction area in North Complex.

Braaten said she and her friends encountered the mouse a few times and the mouse drastically changed the atmosphere of the floor.

“It really made me question how clean the dorms really are and if housing was doing the most they could to prevent other rodents or if it was something they just sweep under the rug,” Braaten said. “It really made people angry and we were walking on eggshells and were very annoyed.”

Promoting cleanliness

Ashley Hartnett, Director of University Housing, said she was unable to talk about this specific situation, but she said in general, housing encourages students to keep their rooms clean in order to prevent unwanted rodents from entering.

“There isn’t really any specific measures that we do. We do communicate with students with health and sanitary requests within the building because they are living in such small spaces so we do hold them out some room care policies,” Hartnett said. “If they do attract pests in their room, it is going to impact a larger community. We do an educational piece on that, but there is nothing that our outside agency does inside the building to specifically prevent those pests.”

If there is a rodent or pests in the residence halls, students should immediately report the situation to their resident assistant or housing director so a work order can be made to get the infested room inspected.

Housing will then place a request to an outside vendor to have the room inspected and devise a treatment plan.  

“There are different treatment measures that the vendor will utilize and with working with them, the only time we will actually spray is when we have a confirmed pest that we’ve located,” Hartnett said.

If the vendor decides to spray the impacted room, Hartnett said they will also do all adjacent rooms.

“We will treat the impacted room and (the rooms) above, below, next too, and treat their rooms as a preventative measure,” Hartnett said. “That way we can jump in there before it becomes an issue in their spaces as well, we try to do a preventative piece.”

Preventative measures

While housing sprays adjacent rooms after a confirmed pest, Brandy Straw, a first-year criminal justice major, said she wishes housing would spray prior to students moving into the dorm to prevent any incidents from happening.

“Spraying is all about prevention, not trying to clean up and fix a situation. That’s why there are several different stages of spraying: before the bugs and pests hit, when they do and then spraying again after to help ensure it won’t happen again,” Straw said. “Clearly (housing is) not doing enough. If they were, such rumors wouldn’t arise and the mouse situation wouldn’t have happened either.” DeadPestz is a website where one can find pest control guides. Hiring an expert in pest control would be the best option to ensure that proper pest treatment is administered.

Straw said she would like to see a breakdown of what the housing tuition is paying for because she said cleanliness should be guaranteed as part of her payment.

“I want to see a breakdown of what our housing tuition actual pays for and then people, whether its students or faculty, taking more initiative to keep the campus clean starting with the dorm halls,” Straw said. “I wish housing would be more honest with what is actually going on in the North Complex and make sanitary living a top priority for residences they oversee.”

Uneasy living environments 

Patrick Simonsen, a first-year musical theatre major said the mouse made his entire floor anxious and uneasy about their living environment.

“I don’t like to think about leaving my door open, because there could be a mouse running around and get in there,” Simonsen said. “(That) leads to our floor not being able to be as social.”

Hartnett was unable to give numbers of how often pests get into North Complex, but she said that it happens every year.

“It happens every year, it’s just what type of pest and how often and locations change every single year,” Hartnett said. “I don’t have an exact number, but every time we feel there might be a concern with a space we bring them in just to do an inspection and let us know if they believe we should do a treatment plan.”

Straw said her main concern with the mouse is when it will happen again.

“If this has happened once, is it going to happen again,” Straw said. “Students need to speak up about the cleanliness of the dorms, because housing can’t hush all of their residents.”