A page one story in today’s Boston Globe talks about the sudden surge of rats in the suburbs and last week the TAB published this story about an uptick of rats in Nonantum.
Have you experienced a rat or rodent problem in your village?
Rats in our midst
by Greg Reibman | Oct 22, 2018 | Newton | 8 comments
Our friends in Newton Highlands along route 9 have been battling rats the last few weeks. We haven’t noticed any around us in Newton Centre, though.
A few months back I was critical of the the City testing out a new garbage collection system without having done a rodent study first. I specified that my concern was about rats. City Councilor Leary, who sponsored the new garbage collection experiment, told me right here on Village 14 that a rodent study was unnecessary. She referred to rats as “critters” and compared them to raccoons…
In fairness, failing to do a rodent study was a mistake, but Leary isn’t the cause of this problem. The Board of Health does a poor job making sure commercial dumpsters and public trash receptacles are sealed to prevent rodent infiltration. The Board of Health is a big part of the problem.
The most chilling details in that story were the ones about the reproductive cycle of rats. A single pregnant rat and its offspring’s offspring can spawn 15,000 -18,000 rats in a single year. Yikes!!
I’ve seen a couple around Cheesecake Brook in Newtonville near Albemarle & Eddy.
Jerry, that detail may very well keep me up all night!
I live in the Franklin School area. Since May 2018 I have had the exterminator 4 times. My neighbor is a hoarder ,so I suspect that is the source.
We live on Dickerman Road near the Eliot MBTA Station. A week or so back, we saw one rat scurrying across our backyard, but there have been no further sightings.
This brings back fond memories of that great flick “Willard”, the story of a kid who trains an army of rats to go after the bad guys in general and people who haven’t been nice to him. I remember people in the theater started to cheer for the rats as the film progressed.
Several weeks ago the Nonantum Neighborhood Association held a forum on the subject. Many concerned residents attended, along with Alison Leary, Maria Scibelli Greenberg, Alan Cicione, Jonathan Yeo, a woman from the health department whose name I did not get, and a pest control contractor with the city. I learned (from a resident, NOT the city) that Waltham and the north side have a problem. The city was downplaying both the role new/big development plays in disturbing them and how extensive the problem is. No concrete plan emerged; there will be a follow-up meeting. We also abut a hoarding family, so we’ve also had pest control come more than once. Coming to your neighborhood soon?