Bedbugs, Rats, and Roaches...

lakeside675 · 08-26-2006, 02:37 PM

My mother saw a news story on the evening news saying how Columbia Dorms are "infested" with roaches, bedbugs, and rats. From what I heard, rats are only in the basement of Wien. Bedbugs are only for guys who are messy in JJ. And Roaches...well its college, I've seen them in Yale Dorms, Penn highrise dorms, etc. They don't kill...=) So can someone please tell me that there are no infestations in the Frosh Dorms (mostly Hartley, my dorm) unless it is the persons fault (leaving food out, spilling drinks, etc.) so I can reassure my mother!

Shraf · 08-26-2006, 02:51 PM

The extent of infestation I have ever seen is a few roaches in the past three years (JJ, Furnald, Schapiro)....havent seen any rats in the dorms or any bedbugs....

on the other hand though this is new york and it can get alot worst than it is at columbia...my old appt building (in midtown) was full of rats and roaches and was quite gross.

Elleneast · 08-26-2006, 03:03 PM

My daughter had a terrible roach and mouse infestation in a summer sublet downtown but has never had a problem in her dorm rooms at Columbia. She told me when I asked her last year if she had ever seen anything that a student can sign up to have their suite/room treated. She would occasionally sign up saying that she had seen bugs when she had not -as a proactive measure. If you don't leave leftover food lying around and clean your kitchen (if you have one) there should not be a problem.

She went to a tennis camp at Williams College when she was in middle school and said that the roaches were much worse than anything she had seen at Columbia. (Don't yell at me Williams people, it was eight years ago.)

sac · 08-26-2006, 03:14 PM

Son had a mouse in his McBain room last year. They got some traps from housing but never managed to get rid of him. (They gave him a male name, though I don't know whether anyone actually determined the mouse's gender.) I will say that, given what I know about my son's housekeeping habits, I was not surprised. He hasn't said anything about seeing either roaches or rats. I know one dorm had bedbugs last year.

There is a bedbug infestation hitting the whole country, according to our local news, which reported on the problem at some hotels and in the dorms at San Jose state.

Elleneast · 08-26-2006, 03:20 PM

"I will say that, given what I know about my son's housekeeping habits, I was not surprised."

Enn · 08-26-2006, 03:21 PM

Yuck...

=\

ThatsFunny · 08-26-2006, 06:14 PM

there were bed bugs in JJ last year and in EC...it doesn't matter how clean/dirty you are, it all depends on your mattress, so CHECK YOUR MATTRESS. i saw a mouse in hamilton once...nearly had a heart attack because that's just gross....my friend had a roach in her room and then i think there was one at the beginning of the year on our hall (JJ)...grosssssss. You're living in the city...for every roach you see, there are 50 more that you don't see.

Denzera · 08-26-2006, 09:00 PM

aside from the bed bug problem in John Jay last year - which, I should add, affected exactly FOUR students (but it makes great news copy, so it got reported everywhere) - i've only seen roaches in situations where people leave lots of food out and are slobs in their own kitchen.

bing121086 · 08-26-2006, 10:04 PM

I had roach traps in one or two of my drawers and on the floor when I moved in last year, and that was more than enough to push my mom over the edge (as if she weren't already teetering dangerously close with NYC in general), so be prepared for that; however, I never saw a roach despite or thanks to the traps. I did see a mouse in the big lounge on the first floor of JJ once; he was hiding under the big Christmas tree they set up in December. I was pretty surprised we didn't have anything, because the people on my floor were nasty. I don't think infestations are a problem--not that I've heard of or seen.

columbia2007 · 08-27-2006, 02:17 AM

The thing that made headlines about the infestation that affected four people in JJ last year was that they were forced to move everything out of their rooms for fumigation- in the middle of finals.

momoffive · 08-30-2006, 11:51 AM

My son is living in Hartley. I just got back from moving him in. We each saw a nice big roach in the bathroom (2 separate sightings......same roach???)

Elleneast · 08-30-2006, 12:17 PM

http://www.facil.columbia.edu/studentwor/

Momoffive, I think that this is how you go about requesting to have your room sprayed/trapped.

(Sorry, my D is back at school so I can't ask her.)

momoffive · 08-30-2006, 12:39 PM

Thanks, there are 3 juniors already in the suite. I'm sure they'll know what to do. The housing\maintenance people I met were really nice (as was everyone associated with the school)

Denzera · 08-30-2006, 01:18 PM

If you ever need something and it's during business hours, go to 118 Hartley and ask for Jose Rosa. He's the guy who will take care of things for you right away.

columbia2007 · 08-30-2006, 06:56 PM

I knew this guy who had a tactic of accelerating fulfillment of his maintenance requests (if they were serious enough) by CCing his emails to President Bollinger, Mayor Bloomberg, and the NYC health department. He had everything done within hours.