Turkeys stroll through our campus.
Skunks knock over our trash cans.
Deer jump in front of our cars.
Rats scuttle through our garbage, making enough noise to keep students awake at night.
But campus is not the only place Fairfield critters obstruct student life. This fall, College Place residents discovered their houses were infested with rats.
“They were underneath the house but not inside the house,” said Marco Ambrosio ’07, whose house has been rat-infested since day one.
The Exit, Ambrosio’s residence, is one of three houses on College Place owned by the Sea Grape owners. A manager handles all issues pertaining to the Sea Grape and the three houses, he said.
“They had the same problem at the Grape so they sent over an exterminator to our house the day after we called [them],” said Ambrosio. “They were right on top of it. They took care of it immediately.”
Exit residents, however, were not the only students affected by rats.
Lisette Brewster ’07, also of College Place, said there are rats on her street as well.
“At night I hear them around the house; it’s as if they are hitting the walls,” said Brewster.
Although she is relieved to have the rats gone, Brewster said the smell of dead rats is unbearable.
“[The] guys next door can’t be in some rooms because it smells so bad,” she said. “The rats were dying and decaying from the exterminator.”
The stench can last up to one month after a one-pound rat has been killed, said Brian Buckmir, president of a Fairfield exterminating company Apollo X.
Fairfield is overpopulated with rats, said Buckmir, because “we are running out of land to share with the wildlife.”
He said the rats at College Place were most likely Norway Rats.
These kinds of rats have an 8-inch body and an 8-inch tale, and have eight to 12 babies within 60 days of birth.
Buckmir said the most “humane” way to kill rats is with glue boards, but the rats will “chew off their leg to get off [the board] before they die of dehydration or heart attack.”
Therefore, the most effective means is a snap trap or poison.
“[A snap trap will] snap them and break their neck; chances are someone else in their family witnessed it and knows to stay away,” said Buckmir.
However, rats will continue to live near their food source if it is still available.
“They are gourmet eaters. If you have New York Strip scraps, Ziploc and freeze them before putting them in the garbage,” he added.
The combined garbage of the Sea Grape and that of resident college students could have drawn the rats to College Place.
However, Buckmir said rats will live anywhere there is food.
“It could’ve been [the Grape] and some of those students don’t have the most sanitary conditions. But I’ve seen rats in the biggest, nicest estates,” he said.
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