CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Freshman Andy Geppert returned to his room in Kitchin House after a long night of studying. Along his route from the library back to Kitchin, Geppert encountered one of the university rulers of the night: a rat.
As Geppert made his way toward the back stairs of Kitchin, a sizeable brown rat came scurrying out from behind a trash can and proceeded to lunge at Geppert.
"I was coming home when a rat jumped at me. So I just ran," Geppert said. He said he particularly feared that the rat would bite one of his Birkenstock-exposed toes.
Geppert's experience is not unique. Over the past month, many students have noticed an increase in the amount of rats that inhabit campus.
These rats are present throughout the campus but have been most noticeable outside of the east entrance to Reynolda Hall, outside of the Benson University Center and in the bushes that surround Kitchin and Davis houses.
Junior P.J. Charlton said he has noticed an increase in the amount of rats on campus since he came to the university two years ago. Charlton said he feels that if the rat population continues to grow that it will become a serious problem.
"I've seen the rats, these rats are the size of small dogs. It's now a matter of capturing them before they capture us," Charlton said. He said he is particularly concerned about the large number of rats that he has seen between Davis and Benson.
The presence of rats on campus is not a new problem. "There have always been rats on campus," said Peter Weigl, a professor of biology. Weigl said he has noticed the presence of Norway, or brown rats, on campus every year that he has worked at the university. These rats typically grow to an average length of eight inches, excluding the tail, and weigh approximately one pound.
"The students may be noticing a population bulge but it is not an abnormal occurrence," Weigl said.
A surge in reproduction rates, more access to food and shelter or movement to the campus from other areas may all be factors that explain why the rat population has grown.
The number of rats on campus may have increased because there is a rat population surge in the Winston-Salem community. An article published in the Winston-Salem Journal ("Rats plague neighborhoods," July 2, 1995) reported that the city's cutback in funding for rat extermination has led to an increase in the sightings of rats throughout Winston-Salem.
Residents from the impoverished Watkins Street neighborhood to the affluent Buena Vista neighborhood have all noticed increases in the amount of rats that they see emerging from the sewers and lush kudzu in Winston-Salem, according to the article.
Due to the fact that rats move long distances until they find a steady and plentiful supply of food, the countless tons of trash that are produced each week at the university make an inviting home for the rats of Winston-Salem.
Many students said their main concerns with the rat population on campus are that they will spread disease, contaminate food and attack members of the campus community.
Weigl discounts these fears. He said he feels that the danger of being attacked by a rat is negligible at this point in time due to the fact that rats will not be aggressive unless they are starving or extremely crowded.
He said that he does not feel that the current population of rats on campus is large enough to produce starvation or overcrowding. In addition, the notion that the rats are a serious threat for spreading disease is not viable, Weigl said.
Unless the rats begin to infest dorm rooms and share common areas with students, the chances of the rats spreading any of their commonly carried diseases -- typhus, bubonic plague and rabies -- are minimal.
Dennis Lloyd, the administrative services manager who is responsible for monitoring the rat population on campus, said that Physical Facilities is aware of the problem and that they have hired the Terminex company to exterminate the rats.
Exterminators from Terminex come to the campus each Wednesday to control any pest problems that the students and faculty encounter, Lloyd said.
Lloyd said that he has never had any reports of a rat problem inside either the Benson Center or the Pit, but he said Scott Ownby, the director of ARAMARK, requested that Terminex exterminate the rats outside of Benson.
An exterminator who has worked at the university said that he had seen ten or twelve rats in the bushes outside of the food court entrance. Based on that observation, he estimated that there was a medium sized population living in the area. A medium sized population ranges from fifty to one hundered rats.
The rats are being extern=minated through the use of bait stations. The bait stations work by feeding the rats anti-coagulant. The poison causes to the rats to bleed to death internally within two or three days of ingestion. If the bait is effective, there should be a noticible decrease in rats outside the Benson Center in about two weeks.
The report by Ownby is the only complaint that he has received lately, Lloyd said.
Because of the nocturnal nature of the rats, it is difficult for Physical Facilities to find the problem spots on campus, Lloyd said. He said he urges students and faculty to call Ext. 4255 if they frequently notice rats in particular areas.
Weigl said that it will be extremely difficult to completely get rid of the rats on campus because they tend to move until they find steady sources of food.
He said that students can help reduce the rat population by keeping their trash in waste baskets and by performing their own exterminations.
Another suggestion, Weigl said in jest, is for students to find non-traditional uses for rats.
Though Weigl has not tried rat meat, he said that rat is a common staple in some cultures and that if substituted into the L.L. Bean recipe for Squirrel stew, it might make a tasty treat.
"If students develop at taste for rats, their problems will be solved," Weigl said.