Some students living on campus say they are fed up with pests in their residence hall rooms and rats on the streets.
We’ve killed several roaches, said sophomore Kate Moll, a resident of The Schenley. They said they were going to spray but they haven’t.
Residents report that their rooms are infested with roaches and rats overrun the outside of on-campus buildings.
I’ve seen rats four times since I’ve been here outside the dorm, said freshman Greg Jasgur, a resident of Thurston Hall.
University officials attribute students’ rat and roach issues to GW’s urban environment.
Walter Gray, the director of Facilities Management, said his office is doing everything it can to reduce the University’s rat population.
In an urban area like Washington, you’re going to have a problem, Gray said.
Gray said rats remain on campus because there is trash in the streets. One of Facility Management’s primary roles in pest control is to regularly pick up trash from the street, Gray said.
Students said they are still concerned.
Six residents of the Scholar’s Village townhouse at F and 22nd streets captured a one and one half inch-long cockroach in their kitchen last week. The cockroach is living in a large glass jar, a resident said. The students took the insect to Community Living and Learning Center and requested an exterminator.
The cockroach is not the only uninvited guest the six girls have found in their townhouse. Since September they have also found three mice and have asked CLLC for traps and extermination, they said.
Other residents said rats have been the most noticeable problem. Sometimes they run right across the front of the (residence hall) and under the benches where people sit, Thurston Hall resident Laura Marcuccilli said.
Harold Harlan, a consultant with the National Pest Control Association, said rats are more than just an aesthetic problem and can endanger the health of humans.
Federal and city officials have good reason to continually work to contain the rat population, Harlan said. Rats spoil food by their contact, spread disease through the fleas they harbor and quickly can overrun a territory they like.
Rats are known to carry diseases and transmit them to humans, particularly leptospirosis, a disease that has flu-like symptoms including mild symptom(s) of aches, pains and fever that resolves spontaneously or after treatment with antibiotics, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Web site.
Leptospirosis is difficult to diagnose, according to the Web site. The disease is transmitted after humans come in contact with contaminated rat urine or infected water.
Cockroaches are known to carry human disease organisms, such as salmonellosis and dysentery, according to a 1996 report by Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment. Cockroaches can cause allergic and asthmatic reactions to sensitive children and adults, especially in closed, urban conditions, according to the report.
Some residents said they are bothered more by the possibility of cockroaches in their room.
It’s disgusting because they’re in the kitchen, the bathroom, they’re everywhere, said sophomore Kate Burton, a Schenley resident. They’re in the food and that can make people sick.
Gray said housekeepers take preventative steps by regularly cleaning the community areas of residence halls. He also said workers are trying to fight the pest problem.
It depends on the severity of the case, but usually we respond fairly quickly, Gray said.
-Sarah Lechner, Ashley Heher and Kate Stepan contributed to this report.
