Rat sightings and other evidence of rat presence in ZAP, the Cowell Cluster house, this week ended with the capture of one rat late Thursday night.
Staff members estimate that the first signs of rat presence appeared on Sunday or Monday, with rat sightings in two rooms as well as multiple instances of rat droppings in rooms.
The rat sightings and other evidence have been contained to one wing of the first floor of the house, affecting five rooms.
“We can’t be sure, but we think they’ve been traveling through the vents in between rooms,” said ZAP financial manager Rushi Talati ’11.
Residents also have spotted rats in the house’s courtyard. Two rooms have seen a rat and others have found droppings around the house, including in one resident’s bed, said resident Yashraj Narang ’11. Narang himself had a run-in with a pest on Tuesday night when he “looked up and saw a big old rat staring at me from the inner doorway” before the rat “scurried away.”
After the initial sightings, the house notified facilities managers. Maintenance workers sealed some of the vents in the affected area. An exterminator from Crane Pest Control came, but was unable to find any rat, so he set out traps. Before Thursday night, he and the residents had little success.
Late Thursday night, a rat was caught. “The exterminator had to kill it and take it away,” said ZAP resident assistant Aaron Zarraga ’10.
“It’s questionable if it was ever more than one rat, though we’re not sure,” Zarraga said. “We’re really hoping it’s just one. It’s a small victory.”
Zarraga, Talati and ZAP community manager Lisa Abdilova ’11 all praised the responsiveness of the exterminator, who said he often responded to calls as late as 2:00 a.m.
Although the rat’s presence led a handful of house residents to sleep elsewhere for the week, the shared fear of the rat presence mostly led to resident bonding, Abdilova said.
“As staff, I was concerned about the residents, but they’ve all gotten closer over this,” she said. “It’s become like a little game: ‘Let’s find that rat.’”
Stanford Housing was notified of the rat presence over the weekend and has since been working to address the problem by hiring pest controllers and encouraging residents to keep doors closed, wrote Housing executive director Rodger Whitney in an e-mail to The Daily. Whitney said that while there have been no other recent rodent reports in other residences, the problem is not a new one.
“It is important to remember that Stanford was and is a farm, and that there are animals of all sorts on campus, which do sometimes attempt to enter the residences,” he said.
The Cowell Cluster recently underwent a pathway replacement project, Whitney said, adding that it is “entirely possible that the rat’s home in the wild was disrupted through this construction and that it ventured indoors looking for a new home,” staying put once it found a source of food.