Ally Abrams walked into her dormitory room in Watson Hall Friday, and saw it on her floor. A cockroach.
"It was disgusting, I screamed," said Abrams, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, "and now I don't want to ever sleep in my room again."
She was unhappy with the way the situation was handled when she brought the problem to the residence officials at Watson's front desk.
"They just told us to kill it," said Abrams, who added that resident advisers told her exterminators had already been to Watson.
Students in Watson have been experiencing problems with roaches for about two weeks now. Syracuse University officials acknowledge the problem, and said they are combating it. Roaches have been a problem for SU residents in the past.
Jess Yarmarkovich, a sophomore in the L.C. Smith School of Engineering, and Montana Pierri, a sophomore in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, found roaches in their Watson suite in the last few weeks.
The women said they called FIXit, the campus maintenance department. A FIXit employee came and filled in some cracks to seal out the roaches, Pierri said.
Other students said they were aware of the problem in Watson, but had not found any roaches themselves.
Jennifer Smith, the Watson Hall resident director, declined to comment on the roach problem.
Matthew Hanner, a senior RA in Watson, sent fourth-floor residents an e-mail about the roaches on Sept. 17.
"You can kill them. Apparently that was all a big myth about others coming to eat their bodies. Kill them if you want to," Hanner said in the e-mail obtained by The Daily Orange. "If you see one please either call FIXit, and let them know the where, when, how, or let me know.
"This is not a serious issue. There are not tons of them in the building, and they will all be completely gone as it gets colder," he said in the e-mail.
But cold weather has no effect on roaches, said Melissa Fierke, professor of forest entomology at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
"The first frost definitely won't kill them," she said.
In order to get rid of roaches, all food sources must be eliminated and there must be no moisture present on the pipes, said Fierke.
Eileen Simmons, director of Housing, Meal Plan and ID Card Services at SU, said she knows the problem exists, but declined to provide details on how SU responds to roaches in dormitories.
"This is just something you have to deal with when it comes up," Smith said.
This is not the first time that an SU dorm has had problems with roaches. In 2006, Marion Hall had a roach problem, and students called FIXit then to deal with the insects, according to an article The Daily Orange published Sept. 7, 2007.
J.D. Tessier, the head of FIXit, said they deal with roaches on a case-by-case basis.
FIXit employs a professional exterminator year-round who periodically checks all of the buildings around SU, Tessier said.
When students complain to FIXit of roaches in their dormitories, FIXit sends the exterminator to the room, Tessier said. FIXit employees may also go to fix any roach entrances in the rooms, Tessier said.
"This is a problem we have to deal with periodically," Tessier said.
spcotter@syr.edu
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