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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1987)
Getting rid of roaches, mice, pests By Chris McCubbin Staff Reporter It's 4 a.m. A light comes on. The floor runs away. Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock. And up the wall, and up the chair, and up the bed, and up the leg. "If the cockroaches weren’t holding hands, the building would fall down." —an old tenant’s joke. Roaches and rodents arc fre quent co-tenants of the cheap, older buildings inhabited by some University of Ncbraska-Lincoln students. Chris Hamilton, a graduate stu dent in the department of forestry, fisheries and wildlife, said the best way to check for pests while apart ment hunting is to look for drop pings in cupboards and comers. Mouse droppings are about 6 milli meters long; roach droppings are smaller, but still visible, he said Prospective tenants also should check for footprints in patches of dust or sawdust and look for gnawed furniture or baseboards, Hamilton said. If there’s a mouse in the house, Hamilton recommends snap traps. Poisons are a danger to children and pets, he said, and a poisoned mouse could die under furniture or in a wall, creating an unpleasant odor and a health hazard. Even if a child or pet acciden tally springsa snap trap, it probably won’t injure them, Hamilton said. Traps should be set along the edges of walls, where mice tend to travel, he said. Setting the traps under furniture helps protect chil dren and pets. Peanut butter, changed every day or two, makes excellent mouse bait, Hamilton said. Scientists have said cock roaches m ight be the only creatures on earth capable of surviving a nuclear war, but that doesn’t mew they have to live in your home. Shripat T. Kamble, w associate professor in the Institute of Agri culture and Natural Resources, said students may face three differ ent types of roaches. The brown German cockroach is the most common, living indoors year-round. The much larger Americw cockroach wd Oriental cockroach, or water bug, usually move indoors about this time every year. To get rid of roaches, use a registered insecticide that indi cates on the label that it is effective against roaches, Kamble said. Many traps, baits and sprays are on the market, and Kamble said they are all effective if used ac cording to directions. If the prob lern is just a few bugs moving indoors for the winter, placing a few sticky traps, such as the Roach Motel, near doors and other places where roaches might enter is often enough, Kamble said. Combat, a trap with a poison bait that interferes with the roach’s metabolism, making it impossible for the roach to get any nutrition from its food, works well for the Gorman roach, but the trap en trances are too small to allow American or Oriental roaches to' get to the poison. Boric acid, used in poison like Roach Pruf, a chemi cal sprinkled around baseboards and cupboards, is effective, he said, but slow-working. Kamble said th& best places to spray are corners, cracks and crev ices, where roaches tend to stay. It isn’t necessary to spray floor or furniture surfaces, he said. / *> ^. / _ Ward Williams/Daily Nebraskan As temperatures cool, the American cockroach looks for a home — perhaps yours. Landlords must zap pests By Chris McCubbin Staff Reporter A landlord can be forced to take steps to eliminate a pest problem in an apartment building under cer tain circumstances, said Shelly Stall, a lawyer at Student Legal Services. Stall said theLincoln Municipal Code requires landlords to keep apartments reasonably insect-free. However, she said, the law also specifies that clearing up an infes tation is the responsibility of who ever caused it. This means that if tenants maintain their apartment in such a way that it becomes infested while they are living there, clear ing up the problem is their respon sibility. Charles Woerth, a housing con sultant at the Housing Code Office, said an infestation is considered the landlord* s fault if two or more units of the building are infested. In order to take action against the landlord, an agent of the office must see the pests live. Woerth said a landlord is given 20 to 90 days to correct a problem. If no action has been taken within 90 days, legal action against the landlord is considered by the code office. Stall said the most important thing for a tenant who is trying to get a landlord to correct a pest problem is to communicate with other tenants. Stall said tenants in larger buildings should consider posting a notice near the entrance or the mailboxes. A prospective tenant should talk with other tenants of the building before renting, she said. A tenant making a complaint against a landlord is protected from retaliation by the lease agreement. Tenants without a lease should know that the law forbids a land lord from evicting, increasing the rent or reducing services because a complaint has been made, Stall said. Love selling excess books By Terri Hahn Staff Reporter More than 10,000 books ranging from children’s books to scholarly inquiries will be on sale Wednesday under the Love Library link. Michael Hare, publicity coordina tor for the event, said most of the books for sale have been donated, but a few are from the Love Library col lections. The only books from the library that arc being sold are “excess, duplicate volumes of titles that arc not in nigh demand,” Hare said. For example, he said, if seven or eight copies of a book were purchased in the 1920s or 1930s and it isn’t in high use, the library may offer one or two copies for sale. “Under no circumstances would we sell the only copy of a book,” he said. Judy Johnson, chairperson of the Love Library acquisitions depart ment, said that with more than 10,000 volumes on hand, not all of the books may make it out to the sale. “We were lucky this year,” Johnson said. “The Nebraska Library Commission donated three different collections from libraries across the state. This donation added a large variety of books that will be avail able.” A similar sale last year raised about $Z8,IXXJ, Johnson said, inc money went to tbc library’s materials budget to purchase books that supported stu dent and faculty research. Money raised from the sale this year will be used for the same purpose. Johnson said the sale will be staffed by library personnel on a voluntary basis. The books will cost 50 cents for paperbacks and $1 for hard-bound volumes. Hours for the sale will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Members of the Friends of the UNL Libraries will be able to preview the books today. Membership in the group is open to anyone. For more information, contact Kent Hen drickson, dean of the UNL libraries. Career Corner Several companies arc coming to the University ot Ncbraska-Lincoln to interview students for jobs. To be considered for an interview, students must file data forms at the Career Planning and Placement Cen ter in the Nebraska Union by the company’s deadline. The deadline for the following companies is Thursday. The compa nies and the majors they arc seeking include: Burlington Northern and Ceco Co> p., civil engineering majors. CIA, all majors. Hewlett-Packard, com puter science majors. Merck & Co.: AGVET, all agriculture majors, agri business, MB As, business administra tion, management and marketing majors. Naval Weapons-China Lake, mechanical and electrical engineer ing majors. An interviewing workshop is scheduled for 10 a.m. Oct. 20 in the Nebraska Union. I-1----I j Enjoy Oriental Cuisine j At A Discounted Price I •Lunch Special from 10:45to2:00includes g a Philippine fresh egg roll and one soft drink for $1.79. • Dinner Special from 4:30 to 9:00 includes any dinner at 30% off. | The Orient Cafe Cuisine j | 3859 South Street — 483-5021 J J Carry-Out and Catering Available {, 1 Parking Available in the Back 1 | COUPON EXPIRES OCT. 24, 1987 Q i_-S3IEEC]___i What does 13 + 10 + 1019 add up to? "■yx 3 great bands all in 1 night!! Tuesday, Oct. 13th Thirteen Nightmares S Ten Foot Faces £ Spot 1019 Jj CHESTERFIELD’S ||! LOWER LEVEL GUNNY’S MALL I) 13TH & QUE S Jp " ■“ . The College of Business Administration Announces Admiral B.R. Inman, USN, (Retired) Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Westmark Systems Inc. “Can the U.S. Compete at the International Marketplace?” Thursday, October 15, 1987 10:30 a.m. Nebraska Union ALL ARE INVITED TO ATTEND " OFFER GOOD ONLY AT THE NEBRASKA UNION 14TH & R. M No Coupon Necessary.