As University of Wyoming students, staff and faculty we all have experience with Wyoming’s beautiful outdoors and abundant wildlife, but when various creepies and crawlies like to come live with us, who ya’ gonna call?
Mike Eaton, an equipment/maintenance/pesticide technician at UW Residence Life and Dining Services, is this quarter’s UW Employee of the Month.
“If you can believe it, the biggest problem we run into is people not reporting a problem,” Eaton said. “You have to let us know if you’re having an issue with any part of your living space because usually it just becomes a much bigger problem the longer people wait.”
You may have noted the last qualification on Eaton’s job description. Nature is persistent if not an absolute pest sometimes.
“We had a situation where students had gone out collecting moose sheds and brought back more ticks than antlers,” Eaton said. “Creepy crawlies come home with UW residents all the time, but we’re in the business of taking care of those issues.”
Eaton explained that household pests are not something people want to be talking about in public or in private, but that their existence has always been a part of human life. Pests knows that humans provide food and shelter and always will.
“I didn’t even realize we could get things like bed bugs and ticks in town,” student, Sarah Johnson said. “I guess they handle these things pretty quick because otherwise I expect you’d hear more about stuff like that.”
Eaton doesn’t want to cause a commotion or disrupt what are already stressful student lives.
“We want be stealthy and inconspicuous when we’re helping students with pest problems,” Eaton said. “I understand and respect the students and want to be as discreet as possible.”
Eaton even says they are very conscious about the use of organic and non-toxic solutions versus traditional chemical processes and that might leave odors or residues.
Eaton immediately strikes one as a friendly character and a person who finds a way to connect with someone from any walk of life. You can tell just by talking to him that he takes an immense amount of care in handling people and pests.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re the most obsessively clean or the most easy-going, people get bugs and mice,” Eaton said. “It doesn’t matter what walk of life you come from, pests find their way in.”
Eaton prides himself and his coworkers on their ability to diffuse tense situations with some lighthearted chuckles and says UW residents really appreciate the extra TLC.
“Since I’ve started we’ve started integrating some new practices on how we handle these situations which led to people taking some different roles in leadership.” Eaton said.
Bottom line is that UW requires an army of individuals who do the dirty jobs and Mike Eaton rises to the top in how he solves problems and makes personal connections.
Not everyone goes to work with the prospect of being bitten by a brown recluse spider, chasing a camel spider into a jar or identifying any number of creepy crawlies that make Laramie’s cozy homes their own.
Eaton says it’s luck of the draw when it comes to pests and is in no way a reflection of the resident.
So, whether you’ve got creepies, you’ve got crawlies or you don’t know what to do, call UW Residence Life and Dining Services and nip the problem in the bud before it blossoms into infestation.
