Uninvited guests

Welcome back kids! Now that our month of hibernation has come to an end, it’s time to begin a new semester. With this comes the struggle to buy new books and get rid of the old ones, break the ice with new classmates and new teachers, and get back into the swing of campus life. This has become more difficult for some students who have been sharing their rooms with unwanted guests.

A few residents were greeted not only by their roommates when they returned from break, but by furry, disease-carrying, pooping machines known as mice. This was a problem throughout Temple’s housing community, but particularly in the Johnson and Hardwick complex.

In one such case, a mouse so terrorized one resident that she chose to move out. Some people don’t enjoy sharing their bed with rodent feces. Go figure? After Melvin — as the tiny perp was known — did his rounds on that Johnson floor, dining on Fruit Loops and Pringles, he then decided to move on to bigger and better things.

In a scene reminiscent of Thelma and Louise, he plunged off the third floor lounge balcony in search of a new life (or perhaps somewhere new to poop). A witness to this mouse caper, Renee Szesko, recalls the look of terror in the eyes of her roommate upon seeing Melvin scamper past her door. “She was really freaked out,” Szesko said.

If the “mousecapades” weren’t bad enough, there is another pest lurking in the crevices of residence halls. Many roaches have decided to make Temple residence halls their home as well. Temple Towers is a hot spot for cockroach activity. Residents don’t take kindly to their little crunchy flat-mates. When questioned about the negativity of Temple students toward his species, one roach said this: “Hey buddy I’m just livin’ my life. You don’t step on me and I won’t lay eggs in your pillowcase, you get me?” Towers resident Shiela Fortson said that the roaches disgust her. “That’s dirty!” she exclaimed.

If you are sharing your living space with some uninvited guests and would like to bid them adieu there are many options to choose from. Traps, glue mats, or poison pellets are some options, but what heartless soul wants Melvin to suffer? Maybe the girl whose bed he pooped on. But for the rest of us there is a more humane way to keep Melvin’s friends away.

Before you call the Orkin Man, consider trying electronic pest repelling products that send out sound waves that irritate pests, therefore driving them away. Johnson Hall resident, Amber Grier, recommends the Portable Electronic Ultrasonic Pest Repeller. She uses the electronic repeller to safeguard her room from mice, roaches, and various other pests. These products are available at hardware stores like Home Depot or on the Internet at sites such aswww.hitecpet.com and www.pestoffense.com. Of course, the best way to prevent mice and roaches from invading your dance space is to keep your room clean. So next time you hear little feet scurry across your floor or hear a crunch under your shoe remember Fortson’s exclamation, “That’s dirty!”