CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A mouse infestation at an apartment complex in Mechanicsville has one woman demanding answers.
Sherita Haskell has been living at the Pines at Cold Harbor apartments with her 11-year-old daughter since December. She says everything was fine until Tuesday, March 7, when she saw what turned out to be the first of many furry problems only a few short hours after pest control sprayed her apartment.
“Tuesday about one o’clock, pest control came out to spray,” Haskell said. “About five o’clock that afternoon, I saw the first rat run out from behind this TV stand.”
Haskell said she has been awake for four days since she was made aware of the mouse infestation at her apartment, and it has been an uphill battle to get her home rodent free.
“I finally got someone on the phone from emergency maintenance and they said there’s nothing they can do, they can’t come out,” Haskell said. “They’re mice, they’re not rats, and you should be fine. That was the conversation that I had this morning with them.“
Haskell has been on a campaign to get something done, repeatedly complaining to the leasing office. She says property management has told her the earliest pest pest control can get to her is March 21. Haskell has also reached out to HUD inspections, with no response.
She says the lack of action has forced her to take matters into her own hands, and has caught seven mice herself in just a matter of days.
“I went to go get traps from Walmart, I spent about $120 dollars,” Haskell said. “I literally brought everything I could think of to get rid of them.”
Even with Haskell’s best efforts, the mouse infestation isn’t getting any better, which is nerve racking, especially where her daughter is concerned.
“I don’t want her to get bitten … she’s in there sick and I don’t know if its tied to this,” she said. “And they’re just pushing it away and I kind of felt like they want me to be quiet and take it and that’s not going to happen.”
According to the Center for Disease Control, rodents can carry hantaviruses, which can lead to a respiratory disease called Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, also known as HPS, in humans.
Haskell says the infestation has gotten so bad she has left the apartment.
“I have to live here, I have to raise a kid here, I just want a clean safe environment,” Haskell said. “That’s what I was promised.”
8News reached out to Burlington Properties, which manages the Pines at Cold Harbor, multiple times over the last two days for their response to the problem, but has not heard back.
