When Danielle Griffin woke up to put on her contacts one day early last week, she found two ants that had drowned in her contact case.
Multiple times a week, Griffin sprays the walls with repellent and hides her toothbrush in the closet to keep ants from crawling on it.
“It’s almost become a daily routine now,” she said. “Most of all, it’s just annoying. They’re just always here.”
Many students living on the Hill may have recently noticed an ant problem in various areas of their dorm rooms.
“There have been numerous reports from residents of ant problems, which began during the recent heat wave we experienced three weeks ago,” said Carisa Narvaez, area manager of UCLA Housing and Hospitality Rooms Division.
Though the cooling trend and rains have helped reduce the problem recently, a combination of food and the moving of soil due to construction contribute to the problem, Narvaez said.
She said ants are not concentrated in any particular area of the dorms but are “pretty much everywhere.”
Griffin, a first-year global studies student who lives in De Neve Plaza, said ants have been coming in through a hole in her ceiling. She told her resident assistant about the problem and said she saw a maintenance worker helping her floormate spray her room.
Though ant numbers have recently decreased, the Office of Residential Life is taking steps to exterminate the problem, Narvaez said.
“Housing has a pest control contract with Orkin to provide on-campus housing with weekly preventative maintenance for the current ant issues,” Narvaez said. “Orkin has increased its pest control efforts to address this current ant problem. These efforts include application of systemic products to eradicate entire nests.”
In addition to Orkin, UCLA’s housekeeping and maintenance staff treat the rooms in which ants are observed or reported, Narvaez added.
Dana Pysz, assistant director of ORL, said Orkin applies different levels of traps and sprays as necessary in the rooms.
“Nobody wants the harshest sprays the first time around,” Pysz said. “If it’s a recurring problem, then we’ll escalate the level of response.”
He added that students should make sure they keep their rooms clean and get wipes from the front desk if necessary to help keep ants away from the rooms.
Kailey Giordano, a first-year English student who lives in De Neve Plaza, said food is the cause of the ant problem in her room.
“We make coffee, and the filters go in the trash,” Giordano said. “There’s also peanut butter in there. We know it’s our own fault that we have ants.”
About four rooms on her floor had serious ant problems, Giordano said.
To help reduce the problem, students should go to the front desk to report any insect problems, because the front desk workers are the ones who can report problems and requests to ORL, Pysz said.