By 
Recently, I came across a social media influencer who goes by the alias “Python Cowboy.” He is a hunting advocate out of Florida, and his content revolves around hunting invasive pythons and iguanas in southern Florida.
Similarly, St. Charles has run into a similar problem as Florida.
You might ask yourself, “How does St. Charles relate to Florida?”
We might not have iguanas and pythons in Montana, but living in St. Charles has seen an influx of mice, with students taking matters into their own hands.
These rumors have been floating around since last year.
At first, I just didn’t care. I’ve never lived in St. Charles, so I assumed it was an exaggeration.
St. Charles is an old building, and seeing a mouse here and there is not entirely uncommon.
However, when I heard about students taking matters into their own hands and the number of mice these students have encountered, I knew I had to dig deeper to understand the situation.
I wanted to know more about the mice, so I asked students some questions and personal stories.
“I currently have three traps in my room,” said Tucker Zanto, a sophomore financial planning major from Helena living on the St. Charles fourth floor. “I’ve seen them running across my room and can hear them running under my bed when I am trying to sleep at night.”
Zanto isn’t the only one who had mice stories taking place on the fourth floor.
“I lived on the fourth floor of Charles all of last year and had some major issues with our floor,” said June Lepage, a junior biology and Hispanic studies double major from Lewiston, Montana. “Once, while my roommate and I were walking up to our room, we saw a mouse in the middle of the ramp leading to the fourth floor. We let our RA and all of the girls on our floor know that we had seen a mouse. That week, some of the RAs put out mouse traps.”
“This year, I have caught eight mice in my room,” said Jaxson Washington, a sophomore marketing and management major from Couer d’Alene, Idaho. “I know that in other rooms, people have captured a lot more.”
One peer minister from last year in St. Charles felt the fear of seeing a mouse in a student’s bedroom raised anxiety for students.
“As a fourth floor St. Charles peer minister, many girls on my floor would tell me about either seeing mice or being afraid of potentially seeing one,” said Josephine Howlett, a senior public relations major from Bigfork, Montana. “I think, overall, many people were anxious to run into one, so tensions were high for several weeks.”
Oddly enough, mice sightings and problems are all stemming from the same area in St. Charles, the fourth floor. When poking around and asking students for other contacts who might offer more information, everyone pointed toward someone living or who has lived on the fourth floor.
To help confirm this correlation, I contacted Jonathyn Jannot, the area coordinator for St. Charles Hall.
“Almost all mice reports come from the fourth floor,” said Jannot. “I personally am not sure why it is all happening on the fourth floor.”
With many unhappy students, I contacted Carroll’s facilities to see how the school plans to handle the problem and why this is occurring primarily on the fourth floor.
“We understand that mice are in St. Charles,” said Daniel Byrd, director of facilities at Carroll College. “We do our best to trap them, however, we don’t put out poison because we have many emotional support animals on campus and are trying to keep those animals safe.”
With cold weather arriving, students may encounter more mice because they are looking for warm places to hide this winter.
“If you see a mouse, report it, and we will respond as quickly as possible,” said Byrd. “If we encounter a true infestation, we will call an exterminator.”
Byrd also encourages students to understand that facilities are working tirelessly to minimize the issue.
“We are always setting traps and cleaning common areas in buildings,” said Byrd. “We encourage students to keep rooms clean to reduce mice encounters.”
As to why the fourth floor has the most issues, Byrd offers the same explanation as Jannot.
“We have mice throughout the building, and certain floors tend to have more issues than others at different times,” said Byrd. “It’s difficult to determine why.”
