Eeeeeeeeek!
There's a scurry of activity at City Hall: Mice invasion has employees on edge
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | December 20, 2006
The City Council aide was working late, as she often does. Absorbed by her work, she paid little attention at first to the skittering she heard across the room; City Hall at night, emptied of its bustle of workers, often makes strange noises. But then a cold wave of dread: There was a creature scratching and clawing just behind the radiator.
"Once I heard it, I left," said Danielle Williams , communications director for Councilor Felix D. Arroyo . "Because I don't like mice at all. I don't like the looks of them. And they smell, kind of like a wet animal."
As Williams soon learned, it was not an isolated incident in the concrete warren of City Council offices in recent weeks.
The office of the council president, Michael F. Flaherty, was invaded by mice, as was Councilor Maureen E. Feeney's, where a meeting was interrupted by blood-curdling shrieks when workers saw a mouse get caught in a trap and watched as another seemed to be trying to rescue it.
"It's disgusting," said a receptionist for Councilor Jerry P. McDermott , shuddering. "It makes my skin tingle just thinking about it."
Mice, building officials said, suddenly appear to be everywhere, darting across floors, hiding inside radiators, ducking into crevices in the walls. Food is being wrapped up tight and stored in high cabinets. Women are refusing to put their purses on the floor. Exterminators, who stop by each day, have laid some 150 traps throughout the building.
The problems seem to be concentrated on the fifth floor, where elected officials have their offices; several traps have been laid in the offices of Mayor Thomas M. Menino . There have also been numerous sightings on the second floor, where members of the public go to pay parking tickets or deal with tax issues.
"They are everywhere," said a parking clerk. "You hear people screaming, and you see a mouse running by. You see them in the bathroom."
The mice generally appear late at night, workers said. Many sightings have been out of the public eye, in council offices.
"You're seeing a lot more activity in the mice than normal," said Michael Galvin , the city's chief of public property. "It's part of doing business in a downtown building that's surrounded by tunnels. It's going to be an ongoing battle."
Several months ago, there were cockroaches on the second floor, Galvin said. Fruit flies are also a frequent problem. Employees reported seeing a bat flying in the building in October, but haven't spotted it since.
The building has dealt with mice, Galvin said, but the problems have rarely been this severe, which he attributed largely to a sprinkler system installation that could have stirred the animals out of their homes in the bowels of City Hall.
Several council aides said they frequently report to work in the mornings and find mouse droppings on their desks. Most offices have begun keeping a supply of disinfecting wipes to clean it up.
"You don't leave any food out, that's for sure," said Councilor John Tobin , who once had a gingerbread house, and "overnight it was downsized to a two -bedroom condo." "If you do, there's a major after-hours mouse party here. They leave behind their party hats, if you will."
There are two traps in Councilor Robert Consalvo's office . Councilor Michael P. Ross has three in his office.
"I've never seen anything like this," said Feeney, who has worked in the building for 20 years.
For some, it highlights a reason to tear down the building and start over, as the mayor proposed last week. For others, they worry about what could come next.
"If we move to South Boston, we're going to get water rats," said one staff member. "I'd take mice over water rats any day."
Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this story. Matt Viser can be reached at
maviser@globe.com.
