Pest problems (Stamford, Norwalk, Milford: apartments, rental, motels)

sevdie · 03-21-2008, 03:26 PM

Okay,

One major factor my husband and I are concerned about when moving to a place we don't know wbout is pest problems...I'm talking about roaches and mice. In New York City (at least the part of new york city that I lived in and gre up in...don't want to offend anyone here), there is a general problem with roaches and mice. The buildings are just infested with them or neighbors end up bringing them because of the unsanitary way they keep their apt. Even the nicest places I'd go and visit had roach motels and mouse traps in the corners.

Now that I am in the midwest, for the most part in general apts and homes don't have pest problems...it's not a common thing in this town the way it was for me in the bronx where I grew up. Apt buildings andhomes are not infested with roaches and mice and I've gone years without seeing any. Of course you have those who keep thier homes in such a way that they create pest problems. Thank God I don't know any of those people here where I currently live.

Anyway, this may sound like a silly topic or question to you, but for me it is a valid question. In CT (Stamford and Milford in particular) Are pest problems common or just a way of life? Would it be unrealistic to search for a rental (apt or home) that did not have any roaches or mice at all. This may sound odd to some of you, but please keep in mind, I have never been to CT before and am not sure if mouse traps and roch motels are things on everyoe's shopping list.

Ugh. I am probably going to regret posting this. LOL

skytrekker · 03-21-2008, 04:12 PM

Roaches here can be a minor problem in apartment buildings ill kept. Mice and rats can be a problem also in the same type of situation- badly maintained buildings. However mice and rats can be found in the city, suburb and country. From apartment to townhouse to single family home.

Rodents can be very clever and invasive creatures- pest control can help eliminate them some- but a cat is a better and more efficient choice in keeping them out. Mice and even rats are a common occurrence in some areas of Connecticut.

As far as mice/rats in single family homes- a clean home some times will be a haven for them if they find a means to enter and make your home into a 'Holiday Inn'--- they are in forests and fields and even the city here-

In most situations mice and rats should never be a big problem.

KH02 · 03-21-2008, 04:42 PM

Roaches i've never seen.
But in two homes so far (in different sections of CT) I've had mice. Though my cats always took care of them as well as setting traps. And we almost always saw them only in the basement.

Rats, i again have never seen, you'd have to be living in a pretty dirty unkept place to get those in CT i would think...

sevdie · 03-21-2008, 05:34 PM

Thanks for responding. I will take this into consideration.

Rich Lee · 03-21-2008, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KH02

Roaches i've never seen.
But in two homes so far (in different sections of Conn.) I've had mice. Though my cats always took care of them as well as setting traps. And we almost always saw them only in the basement.

Rats, I again have never seen, you'd have to be living in a pretty dirty unkempt place to get those in Conn., I would think...

Absolutely not true! In 1998, our neighbors decided to get a dumpster as they cleaned out their basement. Within 12 hours, over three dozen rats from the dumpster and/or our neighbors' basement migrated to our house after detecting the supply of bird food in the garage. Some of them made it into the basement which made for one interesting night. Their mates tried their damnedest to get in by climbing the side of the house to get in through the chimney. At the time, I had three cats and three dogs. Everyone was up all night. Alfred Hitchcock couldn't have scripted this any better.

When we built our new house in 2002, we disrupted the indigenous wood rats (which, by the way, are different from urban rats). At first, it was odd seeing them in the backyard. One of the Cocker Spaniels made it his personal mission to keep them at bay. (He also doesn't like children under 10 but that's another story.)

Sometimes, it has absolutely nothing to do with the cleanliness of the house! Our new house is in designated wetlands which is a natural habitat for wood rats (think squirrels without nice tails). We also have owls, turkeys, foxes, and coyotes!

sevdie · 03-21-2008, 08:46 PM

Oh my! Thanks for letting me know this. I had to laugh though at your comment about Alfred H not being able to write a better story. LOL

Rich Lee · 03-21-2008, 08:54 PM

Hi sevdie,

One of my dogs, a Springer Spaniel-mix, pointed at the rats as they slowly died. One of my two Harriers just howled at them. It was traumatic for all parties concerned except the cats who thought it was an eat-all-you-can-catch buffet. In all, 28 rats died.

Let me tell you, their (finger) nails on the garage door windows could wake the dead.

Rich

sevdie · 03-21-2008, 11:01 PM

That is a very creepy story. You are sooooo right. You can't make this stuff up. I got a visual of everything you described and you just can't write better stuff. I have goosebumps!

skytrekker · 03-22-2008, 04:10 AM

Yuk-thats all I can say about your story Rich..........

andthentherewere3 · 03-22-2008, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KH02

Rats, i again have never seen, you'd have to be living in a pretty dirty unkept place to get those in CT i would think...

I am offended by that statement! And it's untrue. We have rats living in the woods around us, and occasionally they try to get into our home. We have several acres of woods behind our house, with a stream and wetlands, and no, we are not dirty.

Right now there is a rat living under one of our trees where I have a bird feeder hung, and my hubby actually borrowed a friend's pellet gun in the hopes of shooting it. I'm actually against the whole shooting thing, but I'm not fond of rats, either....when we moved in 11 years ago, a rat family had set up house in our basement and we had our hands full eliminating them. In one night they chewed through the kitchen cabinets, built a nest, and chewed through the plastic bucket containing dog food under the sink. We could hear all the noise and the screeching from them, and we were filled with horror. LOL The next day our basement was full of rat traps, let me tell you. I'd rather they crawled back to the woods they came from, but they are drawn by the bird seed under the feeder, and I refuse to stop feeding the birds. I repeat, we are not dirty. Grrr.....once we lived in a basement apartment in Stamford next to a river, and the homeowners had rats. I used to watch them crawling up from the river to the house every night. So as already mentioned, if you live near wetlands you have a greater chance of running into rats. Over the years we've found occasional dead rats in the yard that have died by our cats, once a rat fell in a bucket and drowned, and once I was rebagging a bag of garbage outside that "something" had gotten into, when a rat hopped out of the bag screeching. Yuck!

As for mice, we get the occasional mouse, but our cats take care of them. Mice are not uncommon, and you don't have to have a dirty home to have them. *sigh*

I've never seen a single roach in Connecticut, and we've lived in apartments in Stamford and Norwalk. However, I have known of people living in large apartment buildings in Connecticut cities who have had roach problems.