Black River Falls High School has recently been greeted by some little visitors. Mice. The janitorial staff have been working hard to mitigate the problem.

“We’ve been setting up traps around the school. Whether it be bait traps, snap traps. We have pest control that comes in, that helps out with setting up different stuff to get rid of them,” says custodian Brian Lakowske.

The traps are being placed in multiple locations where mice were previously found or might be in the future, while still being put in places out of the way of students and staff.

While most people have been lucky to not encounter a mouse, others have not been so lucky.

“This is my fourth year in this office. And I have had mice in here at least once a year, every year since I switched into this office,” school counselor Libby Secard said. “I will hear the mice getting stuck to the traps above my desk.”

Secard has been struggling with mice for a while, which have given her many different interactions with them. “The custodial staff put a bucket underneath my ceiling to catch the water. And after a couple of weeks or so, there actually ended up being a mouse in that bucket with the water also,” she says.

The traps and prevention methods have been working, though. She is yet to have an encounter with a mouse this school year.

To help prevent more mice in the school, the custodians gave a couple of ways students and staff could help out.

“Shutting doors tightly, not propping doors. And then, keeping food and drinks in the commons would be the best,” Lakowske said.