Our favorite chapter in the rodent wars comes from the Carter administration when the president threw his full weight behind the battle. A small mouse scampering through Carter's office started it in 1977. Carter called for traps and tried to get on with the affairs of state. But the mice kept intruding. One died and stunk up the Oval Office just before the president of Italy was ushered in. Another was rotting in some unknown spot when Latin American heads of state arrived for the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty.
Carter lost his patience. The General Services Administration takes care of the White House, and the Interior Department grooms the lawn, so Carter summoned officials from both to his office for a dressing down. He did not understand how he could rid a peanut warehouse in Georgia of rodents and the federal bureaucracy couldn't do the same for one little house.
The GSA blamed the Interior Department, saying all the rats were outsiders. But Carter wouldn't let the GSA off that easily. In the summer of 1977, he demanded a purge of the rodents along with confidential reports from the front. The GSA filled the house with 48 traps baited with nearly 10 pounds of poison. On Sept. 12, the GSA claimed a body count of 19, boasting that they believed the kill probably was even higher because of "several incidences of foul odors."
On Sept. 22, the GSA reported that it was winning the battle, and as evidence pointed to the desperate mice that were eating roots in the White House flower pots because they were starving. On Nov. 4, the GSA declared victory after deploying 296 traps and 141 poison "bait stations." The enemy casualties had risen to a high point of 38 in September, then fell to 10 in October and only one in November. The rodents were beaten.
Almost. Perhaps Carter wanted to leave behind a little something for the incoming Republicans, because the vermin reared their little heads again in the Reagan White House. Bush inherited them and, today, the sweet smell of air freshener is a sure sign of a coverup in the White House.
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