Neighborhood plagued, stressed by growing rat infestation

West Yarmouth, Mass. (AP) — Around 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving, Katie Robison woke to a scratching sound coming from inside her house.

“It was so loud that it woke me up, and I could not get back to sleep,” said the Iroquois Boulevard resident. “I was actually emailing (my landlord) at 2 in the morning saying, ‘I’m laying here in bed awake listening to a rodent scratch, and I’m terrified.’”

Since May, Robison and her neighbors in the otherwise quiet West Yarmouth neighborhood have been complaining about a rat issue they say stems from one home at 15 Nauset Lane.

The tenant there, Judith Adelchi, has been providing food and water to the rats and hasn’t stopped, despite a ceaseand-desist order from the Yarmouth Health Department in June, according to health department and court records.

In November, the town filed a criminal complaint against the owner of the property, Mark Pallatino, for failing to stop his tenant, who is also his cousin, from feeding the critters.

“Although Mr. Pallatino had hired an exterminator to exterminate the rats, Mr. Pallatino has not stopped (Adelchi) from continuing to feed the rats and provide them with water,” according to the criminal complaint. “As a result, despite the exterminator’s efforts, the number of rats on the property appears to be growing.”

Pallatino is scheduled to be arraigned in Barnstable District Court on Jan. 3 on three counts of municipal ordinance or bylaw violation.