Hot weather contributing to Niagara’s rat problems

The City of Niagara Falls is trying to get on top of its ongoing rat problem.

“We’re looking at each case that we have. We’re getting public health involved as far as distributing literature,” said city clerk Dean Iorfida.

“We’re baiting sewers. If there is a property nearby that may be suspect, we are inspecting those.”

Iorfida said the city has been doing a lot of research about the issue this summer.

“(It was a) warmer winter, which meant that the rats were able to populate — they were able to breed, so there’s more of them,” he said. “It’s not necessarily your neighbour down the street causing the rats.”

Mayor Jim Diodati said it’s a regionwide issue, with a seemingly different animal problem each year.

“One year it might be a certain kind of moth, and right now it’s rats. It’s around the region, it’s not unique to us.”

Iorfida said city staff hope to come back with a protocol this fall.

“What we’ve wanted to do is try to engage experts — to find the root problem as far as why they’re there,” he said.

The issue was brought up by Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni during last week’s city council meeting. She said councillors received a video from a lady showing a rat in her pool.

“I had a lady who called and she said when they looked out, there had to be 20, 25 rats crawling all over each other.”

Iorfida said staff are directing residents with problems to the city’s website, which has information on how they can rat-proof their properties.

He said the city has received more rat complaints this season than in the past.

Iorfida said when people see rats, they naturally become concerned. In trying to figure out a cause, people often point to what appears to be an unkempt property across the street.

“But often, despite what the complainant may think, there’s no evidence that there’s actually rats emanating from that property,” he said.

In his research, Iorfida said he has also read that a well-gardened or manicured property can attract rats because there’s more “harbouring opportunities.”

“That seems sort of counter-intuitive,” he said. “Sometimes it’s the usual sources — open composts, bird feeders, those sort of things that attract any kind of animals.”

Diodati said he first started getting rat complaints from residents last year.

At first, the complaints came from one area where a structure was demolished, which was believed to be the cause of the problem.

“But then I started getting calls from various areas, in different areas of the city, so I called staff and I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to double up our efforts to deal with this,’” said Diodati.

He said when the problem is on private property — similar to getting a raccoon or a squirrel out of an attic — it’s the homeowner’s responsibility to bring in a private pest-removal service to deal with the issue.

“We’re trying to do, municipally, anything that involves our conduits, like the sewers, or any areas that we own.”

Gary Dagg, a pest-control professional with Orkin Canada, said there’s been an increase in rat activity across the region this year.

“We’ve had increased calls. Our technicians are even saying they’ve never seen this amount of rat service requests in a long time,” said the Niagara Falls resident.

Dagg said it could be a combination of a warm winter with a hot and dry summer forcing rats to move to places where they can find food and shelter.

“Their regular habitats are just drying up, and in addition to that, the increased construction as well,” he said.

“Not that we haven’t had construction in summer time before, but I think the combination of the two are forcing them to go to places where there’s a food source. People are composting more — a lot of places have water sources in their backyards, whether it’s bird baths, or just watering their lawns or their gardens, as well as bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great source of food for them as well.”

Peter Jekel, manager of environmental health for Niagara Region Public Health, said the number of rat complaints have “gone up markedly” across not just Niagara, but all of southern Ontario.

He said public health officials have provided literature to people outlining ways to limit the probability of rats “developing your property as a home.”

“That means just cleaning up things such as dog feces, (which) is actually a source of food for rats. Also, securing any garbage containers that you might have, or compost bins.”