Oct 26, 2006 9:00 pm US/Pacific
Rats Taking Over Parts Of Marin, Sonoma Counties
by Jeffrey Schaub
(CBS 5)
Rats! You know them when you see them, but most of us would rather not see them at all.
"They are pretty nasty, dirty little critters," Scott Brown of Clark Pest Control said.
And they are taking over the North Bay. Brown takes CBS 5 on an outdoor tour of locales where rats like to hang out.
"This is a prime area," he said. In piles of brush or firewood or tall backyard weeds, rats are populating Marin and Sonoma counties.
"It starts getting colder out at night," Brown said. "And when we get these first rains, they are just looking for a nice warm, dry place for food. And it starts pushing them in."
Rats will eat anything and everything. In one photograph, they've taken over one homeowner's kitchen. Rodent control experts from Sausalito to Santa Rosa say the number of rats has grown dramatically over the past few years, and nobody seems to know why.
"Nobody wants to see the picture of a rat. They just cringe," said Ed Meehan, a rat expert with Marin / Sonoma Vector Control. "They don't have a good reputation."
Meehan said he receives 50 or more calls a month from frightened homeowners. He suggests keeping food away from your property.
"Dog and cat food left out at night, and bird feeders are probably major, major sources for rats," Meehan said.
"A lot of people that have fruit trees, nut trees walnuts," Brown added. "They'll drop off the tree and they let them lie on the ground. This is the time of the year a lot of people want to feed the birds, but you can't feed both. If you feed birds, you feed the rats.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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