Jackelyn Silva misses the days when she could store food in her cabinets without giving it a second thought. Or step away from the kitchen table for a moment without a worry.“You can’t cook breakfast and leave it there,” she said, “because once you turn, you’ve got a roach on your food.”
It’s not just roaches in her apartment in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but rodents too. Mice, mainly — she thinks. “Some of the mice look like baby rats,” she said. She takes pictures so she can compare the images. She empties her cabinets so she can deep clean. She buys hard plastic containers so she can store her food where rodents can’t tear open packaging. Still, nothing keeps away the infestations, which began five years ago.
“I don’t know how many mouse traps I’ve gone through in this apartment,” she said. “We have them on the kitchen counters, on the floors, in the cabinets. I’m a very clean person and to see all of these roaches and mice, it’s embarrassing to have people over.”
Ms. Silva has asked for and received exterminating services from Kraus Management, the company that manages the building, but the fumigations have not helped.
There’s also mold in the apartment, which is an acute issue for Ms. Silva who has asthma and multiple sclerosis. Her husband, Rafael Silva, is her caretaker. “We make ends meet,” she said.
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