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.
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The College of Business Administration
Announces
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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
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No Coupon Necessary.
