Benson woman's home overrun by rodents

Benson, N.C. — A Benson woman says a mouse problem at her home has become so bad, she's seeing the rodents at all times of the day and throughout her apartment – even in her 2-year-old daughter's bed.

Patricia Butler lives at Raymond Sanders Apartment Complex on Whittington Drive and says she has complained to the Benson Housing Authority several times about the problem.

The housing authority has given Butler mouse traps, she says, but they haven't been enough to solve the problem.

"I'll be cooking, and they'll run from behind the toaster," Butler said.

She says she has also seen the creatures dart across her stove and scurry down her curtains. She's found feces and urine in her shoes, her dresser and children's beds.

“If I lift up a shoe, I’ll probably have to dump it out,” she said.

Doctors also think bumps on Butler's 2-year-old daughter could be mouse bites.

"She was crying upstairs, and I go upstairs, and there was three mice hopping on the bed with her," Butler's grandmother, Victoria Butler, said.

Victoria Butler, 57, says she found a dead mouse under her granddaughter's sofa recently after noticing a stench.

Debbie Edge, director of the Benson Housing Authority, declined to be interviewed Wednesday, but she told The Daily Record, of Dunn earlier this week that she did not know the complex had an infestation.

She said she had given Butler glue strips to trap the mice.

In a meeting with housing authority board members Tuesday night, Edge said exterminators with Clegg's Termite and Pest Control have been told to do whatever it takes to solve the problem, according to the newspaper.

Board member Kenneth Dupree said the complex has had a mice problem for about a year, but said he thinks residents were afraid to speak up.

"They thought they didn’t have a voice or an opinion to form, because if they did, they would definitely be evicted," Dupree said. "But I had to let them know, ‘Hey wait a minute. We’re here to assist the residents,"

He added that numerous residents have reported mice.

"We're trying to clear all of that up, because these children are our future," he said. "We are concerned about the residents and our children."