The White House apparently has a pest problem, with work orders over the last two years complaining of infestations of mice, cockroaches, and ants.
Hundreds of work orders, obtained by NBC News4, were submitted by White House officials in 2017, similar to the number requested by the Obama White House in the same time period the previous year.
Some of the work orders mentioned finding mice in the White House Navy mess food service area and the White House Situation Room, NBC4 reported. At least four reports of cockroaches infesting the grounds and ants in the White House chief of staff’s office also were found.
“I removed a lot by killing them,” the notes on the ant infestation read, HuffPost reported.
“They are old buildings,” former GSA Inspector General Brian Miller told NBC4. “Any of us who have old houses know old houses need a lot of work.”
According to HuffPost, former President Jimmy Carter also had problems with mice during his time in the White House, which he wrote about in a diary in 1977.
Going back even further, the book “Real Life at the White House” describes large numbers of spiders appearing when the building was hosed down during Grover Cleveland’s presidency in the late 1800s, and many different species of cockroaches, HuffPost noted.
Among the non-pest-related requests were a new toilet seat for the Oval Office bathroom, a DirecTV system in the vice president’s office, and heating system repairs, NBC4 reported.
It is not known whether there are currently any pest infestations at the White House, or whether the work orders for pest control were successful in getting rid of the problems.