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Rats on the rise in Thunder Bay, reasons unknown

THUNDER BAY – Residents all across the city have been observing an outbreak of rats, though some experts are having difficulty pinpointing the reason.
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Canada Pest Control senior technician Doug Rondeau shows off rodent traps. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY – Residents all across the city have been observing an outbreak of rats, though some experts are having difficulty pinpointing the reason.

From an average of two calls per month to now five or six per day, local exterminators are seeing a bombardment of vermin in Thunder Bay and the surrounding area.

Canada Pest Control senior technician Doug Rondeau on Friday said there has been a substantial increase in the prevalence of the rodents.

“I’ve been doing pest control in Northwestern Ontario for 41 years now and I’ve never seen nothing like this,” Rondeau said.
“It’s never been bad like this.”

Rondeau said it’s an unwritten industry rule that if one rat is seen in the day time, there could be as many as 20 in close proximity.

He said rats can live off almost any food source and identified people keeping garden vegetables in mulching containers as a possible factor in the rise, though it remains speculation.

“Lousy housekeeping, dirty yards and woodpiles are what they like to harbour in but rats are very adaptable. As long as there’s water around, rats can survive there, even in the snow,” Rondeau said.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit, which only investigate complaints made in food service locations, institutions and landlord tenant situations, has gone from three or four per year in 2012 to seven so far in 2016.

Public health manager Lee Sieswerda said rats do pose a risk to public health.

“It’s certainly true rats can spread some rare diseases like the plague that would have been a problem over 100 years ago. Now days the main risk is enteric pathogens like salmonella, E. coli or c Dificcile,” Sieswerda said.

“They scavenge around your house, get into your cupboards and your food and they defecate all over the place. That contaminates the food that’s around.”

Sieswerda said he does not know what is causing the apparent increase in the rat population.

 



About the Author: Matt Vis

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