The Dark Side of NYC

     This week I'm here to shatter some of your dreams and tell you that living in NYC is not as glamorous as it seems. I love my apartment- it has exposed brick walls, my room is a good size, and it has a lot of character. However, since I have moved here, my roommate and I have dealt with two different types of infestations: cockroaches and mice. I am from rural Maryland and am lucky enough to come from a very clean and organized home (thanks, mom!), so I had never seen a cockroach before. The cockroaches invaded before the mice, which I appreciate because we got the worst one over with. It started off with just a few tiny ones in the bathroom, but then quickly escalated to seeing at least twelve a day. I was very confused at first because my roommate and I are very clean people, however after the infestation she explained to me that there is an extreme pack rat living in the apartment below us, so the roaches live there and have easy access to our apartment since the building is old.
     My worst nightmare came true when I finally saw one in my room, and of course, it was the biggest one I have ever seen. Everyone has always told me that wild animals in New York are of completely different species. They have no fears and do whatever they feel like. I figured everyone was exaggerating because I've noticed that a lot of people here exaggerate (a ten minute walk is not far), but unfortunately enough, they weren't messing around. I was FaceTiming Nik one night when I heard a painting on the wall above my bed move. I moved the painting slightly only to reveal the most repulsive thing I have ever seen. Behind my painting was a cockroach the length of my middle finger (also relevant to my attitude towards the monstrosity) and the width of two of my fingers. It was disturbing. Naturally, I screamed like I was in a horror movie, frantically hung up on Nik and reached for my Raid spray. After managing to  spray half my bed with Raid as collateral damage, the cockroach fell off the wall, onto my bed, and then crawled into my one of my slippers on the ground. Still screaming bloody murder, I sprayed Raid all over my shoe and successfully paralyzed the creature from hell. Now crying, I grabbed the broom and got the cockroach into the trash can. Luckily, after this incident, we managed to control the invasion. However, I still check my wall every night before I go to sleep just in case.
     I will now explain to you why mice are just as gross as cockroaches. These past two weeks have been a living nightmare for me, as our mouse infestation was specifically in my room. I used to think mice were cute. They are small, fuzzy, and they squeak to communicate with each other, but they are not cute. Once I started hearing a mouse in my wall, I put down traps, but they didn't work. While Nik was visiting, he caught it for me while it was eating my food, and I thought the infestation was over, however it had only just begun. I named the mouse Ebola because it probably had a disease I could have gotten, and I thought Ebola was the only mouse living in my room. Ebola happened to have a family, and when we caught Ebola, his family got angry. They left the walls, started running around my room and got closer and closer to my bed. It actually felt like they were plotting to kill me. Mice are known to have diseases, and that's not something I'm into. I started reading up on ways to get rid of mice, but nothing I tried worked. I tried drenching cotton balls in peppermint oil because they hate the smell, I put all of my food in big plastic bins, and I set more sticky traps where they were getting into the wall. The night after I went full force against the mice, they went wild. They were running all around my room while I was trying to sleep, they scratched on the plastic bins I put my food in, and they started chewing on the walls. Every time I tried scaring them away, they would come back within two minutes. I knew my efforts were hopeless, and I went sleepless for two nights until my roommate and I came up with a solution. My roommate read online that mice can't chew through steel wool, so we bought obscene amounts and filled all of the holes in our apartment with it. We felt like we were in The Walking Dead, trying to keep the zombies out of our shelter. That night, the mice went absolutely crazy because they couldn't get in. They were chewing on the floors and walls trying to get back inside all night. Once again, I couldn't sleep, in fear that they would get back inside. Ever since that night (this past Tuesday), we haven't seen or heard mouse.
     Now, cockroaches and mice terrify me, and whenever I move to a new home, I will immediately take precautions before I settle in. Some advice for you: if you get an infestation of any kind, look to the internet for solutions, not facts. I got carried away looking up cockroach bites and diseases you can catch from mice, and I found myself analyzing every red spot on my body (I'm a redhead, so my skin is always red), and I conveniently felt a sore throat coming on right after I read about Hantavirus, a disease some mice carry that has side affects similar to the flu. The internet is great for figuring out the best ways to stop infestations, but do not panic and approach the situation calmly. Avoid reading about diseases or the reproduction cycles of your unwanted guests at all costs. I'm finally guest free, and I hope to stay that way forever. I've learned more about wildlife in the city of concrete than I did in Maryland where I practically live on a farm, and I plan to take my zoologist level knowledge back to Philly with me. Happy hunting to those of you with similar issues, but hopefully I'm the only one!