<p>you live in shanghai and ask why they dont kill the roaches? its not exactly an easy task to do. its part of big city life, something you have to deal with</p>
<p>damn i have a phobia of roaches.</p>
<p>rats and mice are just whatever but those roaches give me heart attacks.</p>
<p>you dont see them that often, i've only seen them a handful of times. i do have a friend who is extremely lax in cleaning their room (think food left on the floor) who does have a few every now and again. the fact that i'm talking about john jay which has a dining hall and another place to eat in the basement probably doesnt help tho</p>
<p>the intricate step-by-step plan to solving your roach problems:</p>
<p>1) Clean up all the miscellaneous food shlt you leave lying around, especially crumbs on the floor.
2) Keep it freakin clean! Vacuum, and maybe scrub stuff down every now and then. Don't leave food lying around.</p>
<p>Problem solved.</p>
<p>This summer, I went to Columbia for their high school program, and I lived in Hartley. </p>
<p>I heard that there were mice in the laundry room, so I took mine home on the weekends. Our dorm was fairly clean in the sense that we never left food on the floor or anything like that, and yet in our first week, a mouse found its way to the suite. We got traps put up in the dorm, and we found ours stuck to one a week later. Towards the end of the three weeks, there was a waterbug in the bathrooms. They're bigger than roaches.</p>
<p>Other dorms were infested with mice as well, roaches, waterbugs, you name it! I was on the second floor, so it could make sense that we had a mouse. On the fifth floor, one suite had a ton of roaches, I heard. The tenth floor didn't seem to have many/any problems as far as I know, and.... I think that's it.</p>
<p>Oh- and at night, if you step outside hartley, you'll see that the little area in front of JJ, Hartley, and Wallach is crawling with rats. It's gross. You'll see at least 10 or so if you hang out for about 15 minutes or so.</p>
<p>um, sorry to hear about your experience but that's not been mine nor my friends in hartley. yes those things exist but i think "infested" is a very harsh word that goes over the top.</p>
<p>also, everywhere you go on campus at night, you see rats. again, "crawling with rats" is harsh, it gives images of Indiana Jones which is completely wrong. they scurry across the walking paths. if you walk the whole campus once at night, you might see 3 in total.</p>
<p>Yes I live in Shanghai. There ain't no roaches in my house.</p>
<p>Can't they go around and spray stuff that kills them or is this not possible.</p>
<p>Whatever. The dorms are disgusting. But then, dorms usually are, aren't they? </p>
<p>And you see more than 3 rats. You see 3 rats sitting in the laundry room. Walking from the gates to Hartley, you see maybe 6-7. If you do that AND hang out in the little area in front of Hartley, you'll see 10-11. It's a college in the middle of a city, and it's on the west side. It sucks, but it's pretty much expected. The west side has a lot more unwanted neighbors than the east side, and the campus is old. </p>
<p>If you get a high floor, you probably won't get animals.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And you see more than 3 rats. You see 3 rats sitting in the laundry room. Walking from the gates to Hartley, you see maybe 6-7.
[/quote]
this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I have never once seen a rat along college walk, and even at night, I don't see them on the campus side of the buildings. Only when trash is put out on 114th do you see anything like that, and even then it's rare. And my eyesight is just fine.</p>
<p>Maybe the laundry room in hartley is different from every other basement room i've seen at Columbia, but I doubt there are rats there either. I never saw any in any of the buildings I lived in (carman, plimpton, hogan, broadway), and none of my friends ever told me about any - and I'm sure it would've gotten mentioned. Cockroaches in kitchens aren't unheard-of, although they're rare. I've heard of mice in the barnard quad. But never once have I heard of anyone seeing an actual, honest-to-god rat in a Columbia dorm. If there were any sort of problem, the Spec would be all over it.</p>
<p>I think Purpose here is exaggering for effect rather egregiously.</p>
<p>We should also keep in mind that Purpose was there in the summer. Heat will of course drive animals and bugs more out into the open than does the cold.</p>
<p>However, I will also agree with Denz that it is a gross exaggeration for what is normal for the campus.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I'm a girl (not a guy, Denzera.)</p></li>
<li><p>I'm ridiculously terrified of bugs and little animals. I have never seen a mouse or even an ant or roach or anything in my house or near it, so I get extra shocked when I see little beasts. I could be exaggerating, but I wouldn't know it haha. </p></li>
<li><p>There were rats in the laundry room. I didn't go there, but people who did saw like 3 in 45 minutes. And at night, the rats really did come out. You could see them scurry from one bush to another. It was disgusting. And there were a bunch. You're right that it's probably not like that during the year. I hope it's not like that lol...</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Oh- I didn't mean that there were a ton of rats on collegewalk- I didn't really use it all that much, to be honest. </p>
<p>I meant if you come from a side entrance, you'll see animals, but you see most of them in front of the hartley/jj/wallach cove area thing. They scurry from the field to the bushes and back and around. They mostly stay to the sides (like, they don't go to the round thing with the pretty ceiling).</p>
<p>you mean near Van Am quad, with the little cupula thing. and i agree with that. there are, on a normal night, rats there. but its really not that many nor that often</p>
<p>Hi. Didn’t really want to revive the thread but it’s been 4 years since the last post and well I want to find out some info. I have a chance to go to Columbia next fall as an exchange student and well I have a very serious phobia of roaches (bugs in general really) and to some extent rats. Just how bad is it a problem is this in dorms? I can tolarate them in general campus and streets but in dorms I am not sure. I hope you’ll help me make a decision.</p>
<p>A girl on my floor is absolutely terrified of any bugs and has only had minor issues. Most of her issues stem just from her fear of regular bugs (mosquitoes, flies, etc) coming in through her window from the time she opens her window to the time she puts in her window screen. Lol. </p>
<p>We have found two cockroaches in the boy’s bathroom. Seeing as they are city cockroaches, they are humongous. I do not know how they get that big. But the sightings are few and far between, and it has never been an issue for anyone on the floor. I’ve never seen anything in my own room.</p>
<p>Which hall do you stay in?</p>
<p>@isabelwhatx, what do you mean by humongous??? O.o The one’s I’ve been seeing in my city are about 1.5 - 2 inches…are NY roaches a lot larger? My wild imagination is leading me to imagine them the size of a dog right now…<em>shivers</em> not a good idea at 6 am in the morning XD</p>
<p>They’re like pretty huge… easily the length of my thumb and very fat. So gross. </p>
<p>I am in John Jay :)</p>
<p>“Seeing as they are city cockroaches, they are humongous.”</p>
<p>At least city cockroaches don’t fly. Apparently the ones down south fly…which I find utterly terrifying.</p>