B.C. planning no war on rats
Province says it would cost too much, wouldn’t work
Homeowners are on their own in dealing with rat infestations, the provincial government says. Victoria has no plans to initiate any kind of province-wide rat eradication scheme, saying such an undertaking would likely be expensive and futile.
“Given the extent and abundance of rat populations in B.C., provincial-scale control programs would be cost-prohibitive and unlikely to succeed,” the Ministry of Environment writes to the City of West Kelowna.
Last year, citing the exploding rat population, the city appealed through the Union of B.C. Municipalities for the government to do something to tackle the rat problem, which has emerged recently as a serious concern in the Okanagan.
Coun. Rusty Ensign said he’d never heard of rats in the Valley until a few years ago, Mayor Doug Findlater had to clean out rats from under his hot tub, and the city had to demolish a trailer used as a municipal office because it was so heavily infested with the rodents.
In its response to the city for help on the rat front, the provincial government says rats “have been present in B.C. since the mid- to late-1800s” and are well established in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Gulf Islands.
The government does acknowledge rats are
a much more recent problem in the Kelowna area, appearing in great numbers within just the past five years.
“The cause for recent increases is not known, but could be a normal population cycle or related to a generally milder climate,” the response states.
Whatever the reason, no provincial-led control programs are planned, and homeowners are advised to try rat-proofing their own properties by, for example, removing outdoor sources of food, water, and shelter.
“Rats can be controlled with live or snap traps, or by using a professional pest control company,” the government says.