Infestations of 'prolific' rats leave residents afraid, disgusted, frustrated

At a committee meeting last week, Orlans East-Cumberland Coun. Matthew Luloff shared one retired man's harrowing story of battling a horde of rodents.

"He caught 78 rats in his backyard with his own rat trap last year," Luloff said. "That is disgusting."

Luloff's resident is hardly alone. As of the end of May, residents have filed 278 complaints with the City of Ottawain 2023 reportingrats either inside or outside their homes. That's up from 250 during the same period last year.

The city has responded by reviving a working group to co-ordinate its response to infestationsalong withinspection, park maintenance and education efforts.

However,those stuck fighting infestations often feel they're on their own. Here are some of their stories.

'They've actually fallen through the ceiling'

For Vicky Goyette, it began this winter. A friend who livesin her basementcould hear somethingscurryingin the walls. Then rats started falling out of the ceiling.

It kept him up at night.

"He was not sleeping.He said they were fighting.He could hear them running through the ceilings, the screeching sounds they were making," she remembers.

"We started setting up trapsand it was just one after another. But come spring, it really got bad."

Goyette, who lives in Orlans, figures she caught about 20 rats on her own. Then she called a professional, who killed at least 20 to 40 more and sealed up her home with caulking and wire mesh.

It has cost her about $6,000, she said,and that's not even counting the property damage. She'll have to fix the basement ceiling and a hole leading upstairs to her kitchen, where the rats chewed through the hose to her dishwasher.

They even destroyed the wires in her shed, cutting offthe electricity.

"Of course the droppings though, that was the other big thing," she said."In the kitchen sink there was lots. It was a daily cleanup."

She was afraid every time she opened a cupboard that she might find a rat staring back at her.

Goyette last saw a rat about two weeks ago and feels some relief that her exterminator's efforts appear successful, at least for now.

She's hearingfrom neighbours that they're now having rat problems of their own, leading her to conclude the creatures have simply moved on to a new target.

'It's just awful'

Kimberley Hoareremembers the noises of the rat that turned up inher bedroom, like a nightmare.

"He was a big guy," she said.

His presence left her so unsettled that she spent two weeks sleeping on her sofa.

"Eventually I did catch him," she said."He was in the drawer of my vanity. I set a trap in there and I finally got him."

Hoare has been keeping close track of the catches in herKanatahome. She's now up to 48 ratsand counting.

(The)alpha male has a haremof females.- Kimberley Hoare

The bills are also piling up.

She suspects the rats are responsible for a water leak in her ceiling after chewing through a plastic pipe. That cost her $250 to repair. She'll have to fix her ceiling and replace carpeting stained with rat urine and feces.

Shehired apest control company for $1,500, but the rats still aren't gone.

"They're making tunnels throughout my insulation in the basement," she said."I can actually watch them."

It's a losing battle. She said the "alpha male has a haremof females," who each give birth to a new litter every eight weeks or so.

She dreads having to go down to her basementto do laundry or check the rat traps. "I wear twomasks because of the feces and the urine down there," she said."It'sjust awful. I'm afraid to go down there."

Hoare hasn't had a pleasant experience trying to get action from the city. She suspects a neighbour throwing seeds and peanuts nearby is attracting the rats, but bylaw didn't go beyond issuing a warning, according to Hoare.

"Apparently they can't do anything," she said.

She wants the city to step up its enforcement of property standards.

'They pretty well took over my yard'

Rats are also infesting communities on the north side of the Ottawa Riverand Terry Caunter'sGatineau neighbourhood might be ground zero. He lives in Manoir des Tremblesnear the Champlain Bridge.

The problem started around the beginning of the pandemic, he recalled, so Caunterjoined forces with some neighbours to trap the rats scurrying through their yardsand later called an exterminator to help.

Through their joint efforts, he said, theycaught about 200 rats. It soon became clear their struggle was in vain.

"We gave up. It just seemed fruitless because no matter how many you catch, they breed so quickly," he said.

"They're incredibly prolific."

They're incredible engineers.- Terry Caunter

Caunter blameda rusty garbage container from a condo complex behind his home. He contacted hiscity councillor, who managed to persuade the condo to replace thecontainer.

It didn't do much good.

"Rats don't care," he said."They dig. They're incredible engineers."

Caunternow sees a rat or two every day. They'vedug tunnels, turning his yard into what he calls "Grand Central Station" of their transportation network.

They moved under his shed. Caunter pulled it apart last spring andspent about $2,000 trying to rat-proof it, digging a trench, filling it with gravel and erecting chicken wire.

The rats just dug down about a metredown to evade his fortifications.

Caunter wants the City of Gatineauto launch a coordinated campaign against the rats, including better property standards enforcement.

"It's really affecting the quality of life of everybody who lives in the neighbourhood," he said.

'The city should be doing something'

Residents from all over the city contacted CBC with stories of rat infestations.

In Centretown, Clarence Furtadonoticed that rats have chewedthrough his garbage cans. He's found droppings inside his home. A pest control expert confirmed they were from rats. He found that "shocking."

He worries a rat could bite himor spread disease.

"I think the city has to play a more active role," he said. "Don't just leave it alone for the homeowner to fend for themselves."

He proposed weekly trash collection as a solution that could help deny rats a food source.

In Heron Park, Johanna Hove saw the first rat run across her back deck the first week she moved inthisMarch.She checked a community Facebook group and learned she wasn't alone in fighting infestations.

Reports of rat sightings were popping up everywhere.

"There has to be some sort of strategy, because currently I don't think the city is doing anything," she said."The solution, as I understand it, is to just educate the public and I don't think that's enough."

Back in Orlans, Pierre Page has spotted about six or seven rats on his property this year. He said that's never been a problem in his roughly 35 years there and suggested the LRT construction in the area might be playing a role.

"There's a population explosion of these rats, I suspect," said Page, a former Ottawa city clerk.

"I [have]bylaw telling me that there was no program, there was nothing they could do and I was on my own."

It left him "a little ticked off" since he feels the city should be taking action. He isn't yet impressed to hear they've formed a working group to tacklethe infestations. He called it "posturing."

"I'll be encouraged when I see that they actually do something about the problem," he said.

In a statement, the city acknowledged there has been a rise in rat complaints in recent years. It said it currently deals with them through education, park maintenance and some baiting on city property, as well as property standards and food service inspections.

It said the new rat mitigation working group will allow staff "to explore innovative ways in dealing with the issue in Ottawa," including studying how other places deal with rats, information sharing and co-ordination.

The city said staff recognize the importance of rat complaintsand the working group will assess specific areas of the city to better understand the issue.

The statement also acknowledged construction can cause rats to disperse and seek out new sources of food, water and shelter, notably in residential properties.