A longtime tenant in the Longwood section of the Bronx says her apartment has become almost unlivable because of a relentless rodent infestation. Mice have turned up in a bag of cereal, scurried through her hallways and crept across her countertops and stove, to the point where she describes finding them a normal and unwelcome part of daily life inside her own home.
By her account, the scale of the problem is severe. She says she catches three to four mice a night and that the animals get into her food, her bread and her crackers, leaving her feeling as though there is no safe place to eat or rest. It is no way to live, she says, describing herself as a prisoner in her own apartment, afraid of what she might find next.
The infestation has taken on an added layer of fear because of her health. She is being treated for blood cancer, receiving treatment once a week, and says she is worried about the impact the animals could have on her already fragile condition. The heat of the summer keeps her indoors during her treatment, which only deepens her sense of being trapped alongside the vermin.
Her family shares the ordeal with her. She says the rodents disturb her daughter and her son, who has autism, leaving them all unsettled and unable to sleep as the mice move through the apartment at night. She describes the animals as increasingly aggressive, and the constant disturbance has worn down a household that simply wants to feel safe in its own space.
This is not a sudden or recent problem. She has lived in the building for 26 years, and a local news crew was in the very same apartment 14 years ago documenting the same struggle with vermin. In her telling, little has changed in all that time, and the recurring nature of the infestation has left her convinced that a lasting fix has never truly been carried out.
Now she is directing an urgent plea to her landlord, asking not for another round of temporary measures but for a fresh start somewhere else. She wants out of the development and points to newer buildings, asking that she and her family be given a new place to live so they can finally escape conditions she says have defined too much of her time there.
In response, the building's management company, Wavecrest Management, said a contracted exterminator had treated areas of the apartment last week. In a statement, the company said that once it is alerted to any issues with vermin, its contracted exterminator is contacted immediately to carry out a full extermination as needed, leaving the tenant to hope this time the effort will finally bring lasting relief.