Students Wage War on Rodents

First-year students in Hollis and Stoughton Halls have been busy recently fighting off an invasion of mice, according to residents and proctors in the North Yard.

Although the presence of such rodents in some of Harvard's oldest buildings is not unusual, officials said, students unaccustomed to the furry critters said they were disgusted by the remains of mice caught in traps.

"We have a trail of blood across our floor," said Kermit Roosevelt '93, a resident of Hollis South who has killed seven mice. "The mouse must have dragged the trap in its death agonies."

Another Hollis resident, Francesca G. Muller '93, said that one mouse "was wiggling in our trap. He was flipping about."

Others, like Ella East '93, also of Hollis, said they view the mouse infestation as a health problem.

"I consider it a safety hazzard," East said. "The first time we saw one we were hysterical--we wanted to get out of the dorm. They are dangerous."

House mice do pose a health threat, but not one as serious as some have suggested, according to Gary D. Alpert '81, entomology officer in Harvard's Environmental Health and Safety Department.

One easily treatable disease--rickettsial pox--is transmitted from tiny parasitic mites that dwell in the nests of mice, Alpert said. Even after an effective extermination program removes or kills many mice, these mites often leave the nests and bite students, he said.

House mice carry neither rabies nor Lyme disease, said Alpert.

Alpert said that he had not heard about the mice in the North Yard dorms and said that he has not received any reports of rodent epidemics since December, when the University replaced its Yard trash cans with rodent-proof ones.

"Things have improved greatly since we installed the receptors in the Yard," Alpert said.

Some methods of capturing and killing rodents concern animal-rights activists, who argue that traps such as glue boards, which kill rodents slowly, are not humane.

Chloe E. Aridjis '93, who lives in Hollis, believes that mice "have as much right to live as we do."

As a member of the Animal Welfare Committee at Phillips Brooks House Association, Aridjis has encouraged students in Hollis with rodent problems to use "humane traps," which capture but do not kill the mice.

"If people are willing to show a little more concern, they can try the humane mouse traps," Aridjis said. "I've encountered a bit of friction. People just don't take it seriously."

Alpert said his department provides both traditional and more humane mouse traps.

In the midst of the rodent problem, somestudents see little cause for alarm.

Emilie Y. Nakayama '93, a resident ofStoughton, said that when she first noticed amouse in her room, she was not frightened.

"It didn't really bother me that much exceptthat it was eating our food," Nakayama said.

"In some ways, it [the rodent problem] is likefishing," said Roosevelt. "You go to bed and wakeup to look at traps.