Science Metropolis – Boston

After this week, my roommate is done with mice. She could handle watching a mouse pup crawl, soaking wet, out of the kitchen sink (she was just glad she didn’t turn on the garbage disposal). She was o.k. when the glue traps scattered across our apartment started filling with squeaking captives. But when a mouse stole the spoon and feed for her sea monkeys at 2 o’clock in the morning, my roommate broke. It’s war in our apartment now, and no form of pest control will be ruled out.

Although our location in Allston’s “student ghetto” could be blamed for our mouse problem, Boston does have a reputation for its rodents – scoring number 3 in the New York Times’ 2007 Rodent Risk Assessment. Numbers on the extent of the city’s infestation are difficult to find, although research by public health experts studying the relationship between asthma and pests have found high percentages of affected households.

Mice and Boston are also linked by research studies conducted on the creatures over the years. A quick Google search won’t bring up advertisements for pest control, but a press release for Boston College biologists who’ve built a better model for mouse cancer and articles such as “autism-like disorder reversed in mice.”

With a mouse problem in the apartment, it’s easy to forget their contributions to science. Instead, we’re experimenting with ways to manage our pests. Unfortunately, according to an Illinois Department of Public Health Website, as long as we eat, we’ll probably have mice. Aside from their insect-like abilities to crawl up walls, jump as high as 13 inches, and reproduce every three weeks – they can survive on very little food for long periods of time. When a meal is available, whether from a trash bag left overnight or a few crumbs on the counter, you can expect to find evidence of their rummaging come morning.

If cleaning the kitchen isn’t enough, then our best bet is “population reduction.” Earlier this year, we tried live traps that looked like big $15 condos for rodents. These worked really well. But, getting the mice out of the trap was difficult, as they were often too scared to leave. When money became an issue, we switched to the cheap glue traps. Despite being inhumane and illegal in some countries, they work. A good tip is to not fold them up as pictured above, leave them flat and in a place you know mice have been. Also, try not to touch any trap too much and place them with latex gloves – mice can smell humans.

If our glue trap strategy doesn’t work, other options include snap traps, poison and home remedies like peppermint and onions. Other advice is to control how mice get in and out of living spaces. Since we live in a 4th floor rental apartment, we have little control over the maintenance of our building (the multiple citations for dumpster overflow taped to the front door signals the kind of neglect students here endure). If our rodent problem continues, we can leave a hundred messages for maintenance or call a local “animal removal” service like Massachusetts Pest Control. Hopefully, for my roommate’s sake, the mice will learn of this plan and make a hasty retreat.