RESIDENTS DESPERATE TO RID STREET OF RATS

ALISON COMYN TALKS TO RESIDENTS IN TREDAGH VIEW WHO ARE PLAGUED WITH A RAT INFESTATION

IN a neat and tidy little cul de sac of a southside Drogheda estate, the streets are eerily quiet.

Despite a bright and clear day in June, no children are playing on the streets, and it’s not the threat from coronavirus that is preventing the fun – it’s the threat from rats.

The semi-circle of 30 houses in Tredagh View has been plagued with the filthy vermin for months - and in some cases years – and residents have reached breaking point.

“There’s a very serious problem, and just a couple of weeks ago, I went out to my back garden in broad daylight, and there was one the size of a cat in front of me – it was massive – and I froze,” says one resident, we’ll call Mary to protect her identity. “I got poison from my neighbour and hid it in chocolate, and it ate it all along the fence, and then later that night, I saw what looked like the same rat running along the street, with no fear.”

Another resident who also wishes to remain anonymous says every house has been hit.

“They’re in the cavities of my walls, and spilling out onto the streets,” says ‘Susan’. “During the day they are running in and out of the gardens and we’re petrified to let the kids out to play, and can’t leave our windows or doors open. It’s absolutely horrendous.”

There is no rubbish lying around the estate, and the majority of the houses are all clean and well-kept, so the source of the infestation remains somewhat of a mystery to the tenants.

“There’s two particular houses that have been infested from underground for probably 15 years now, and they have nests in the walls and everything, but they were never that bad in the street,” she says. “We think they are coming in and out of the drains,” adds another neighbour ‘Mark’, “and a lot of the plastic drain covers have been chewed right through. My neighbour has caught one in his garden at least once a week for months, and I’ve caught three and my cat has got six or seven.”

The residents have banded together and contacted the council separately and as a unit, but nothing concrete has been done.

“The rats have eaten through the pipes in my ceiling, which means the water is running down the walls and through the lights, so a chap did call to my door from the council and said he would write up a report, but I’ve heard nothing back,” says ‘Ciara’.

“We’re conscious because we all have young kids who want to be out playing, and if there are rats running through the streets we can’t and if there is poison put down, anyone of them could eat it or our pets could either.”

One of the tenants has a catalogue of videos from CCTV and other residents, showing the audacity of these brazen rodents, which clearly have the run of the estate.

In one, you can clearly see a large rat emerging from a drain cover, another criss-crosses between gardens, while in a third example, a rat seems to escape from a car!

“It says in the tenants handbook that pest control is our own problem,” says Mark, “but if we are all having such a serious problem, surely it should be a council issue, “Someone did contact a pest control company, and were told they would charge €284 for a month, but they seem out of control, and carry so much disease, it strikes me now as a serious health issue which the council should be dealing with.”

Louth County Council was contacted for comment on the issue and issued a brief response to the Drogheda Independent.

“The Council has contacted the HSE to address ress vermin in the outdoor areas of the estate,” said a spokesman.

“Individual tenants are responsible for vermin in the house as per the tenancy agreement.”

Meanwhile residents of Tredagh View say they are at their wits’ end, and can’t face into the summer months like thithi.

“It’s worse when the weather is warmer, and we can’t even open our windows, or let the children out to play,” says a resident with frustration clear in her voice.“We feel we are being left to our own devices here when it is too big a problem for us to deal with alone.”