Students at Duquesne University are ratting to the Allegheny County Health Department about rodents at Brottier Hall.
Health officials discovered "rodent activity" in a garage and utility room at the residence hall after an inspection last week. The evidence: carcasses, droppings and rub marks made when rats scurry along the wall. But they found no evidence of the creatures in the common areas on the first, third and 10th floors.
"We don't consider this to be a major problem," department spokesman Guillermo Cole said Tuesday. "We have given the university until July 12 to correct these problems we saw in the garage."
University spokeswoman Megan Tressler said, "We're taking it very seriously. We're working with the health department and following their recommendations."
She said the university hired exterminators who have examined the students' rooms three times since May 11 and found no evidence of rodents.
The health department would have a hard time persuading Duquesne student Meghan M. Kelly that the critters are not a crisis.
"I have had rats in my apartment for nearly two months," she told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an e-mail. "If you write a story, you will be able to help future students live in a safer environment."
Kelly, who lives on the 14th floor of Brottier, the former Citiline Towers Apartments on Forbes Avenue, said a health inspector had told her that she not only had a rat in her apartment, but mice, too. She was unavailable for further comment.
Cole said the inspector found openings in the garage door through which rodents or other animals could enter. The holes were covered. The department also recommended that the university clean up the utility room and set bait stations there.
Cole said an inspector returned yesterday and is satisfied that the university is addressing the problem. "We think they'll be in full compliance," he said.
