Tuesday,
July 10, 2007
By Richard C.
Dujardin
Journal
Staff Writer
North
Providence -
Residents alarmed by a troubling increase in the number of rats roaming their
Centredale neighborhood over last 18 months were given assurances at a meeting
at Town Hall last night that – with their help – the problem can be
solved.
“You
can get rid of rats,” pest control expert Anthony Tudino told nearly 30
residents who came to a special meeting called by Mayor A. Lombardi.
“It’s not that hard.”
Tudino,
who runs A & D Professional Pest Control, had been asked by the mayor to
join him in a tour of the streets that residents have identified as ones that
have been most hard-hit by the rat invasion including, among others, Byron and
Halsey streets and Ferncliff Avenue.
The
pest control expert said their tour not only confirmed the presence of rodents
in a neighborhood in which most homes are well-kept, but also pointed to some
of the reasons why the rodents, having come into the area for whatever reason,
have decided to stay on.
“If
they find a food source in your yard, or within 100 feet of your yard,
they’ll stay there,” Tudino advised residents.
Lombardi
and Tudino said that while most residents appear to keep their garbage cans
covered, it was clear that some people were not heeding the warnings of minimum
housing inspectors to not leave garbage bags lying around for rodents to enjoy
at their leisure.
They
found open garbage cans with no lids, garbage in plastic bags in no cans at
all, a couple of dumpsters behind Bailey’s Pub where the doors to the
dumpsters were left open. They found a plastic garbage can on Ferncliff Avenue
where rodents had chewed their way in from the bottom. And they found a discarded
appliance with rodent droppings inside – a clear sign that rats were
using the appliance as a haven.
To be
sure, none of this was anything new to people such as Luigi DelPonte, who
presented pictures that he had taken of a Salvation Army bin that some people
have been using to dump garbage and trash, characterizing it as a message to
pesky rodents: “Come to dinner. We’re having macaroni and
cheese.”
Nor
was it a surprise to Mary Ferreira who reported that as of yesterday she had
trapped 26 rodents in her yard on Byron Street during the last six months.
Tudino
said there are any number of reasons why rats may have come into the
neighborhood – from recruiting mild winters or flooding to demolition and
reconstruction of old buildings. Councilman Mansuet Giusti told the gathering
that he personally believes that the rat problem began when a dam burst causing
a stream that runs through the neighborhood to become extremely shallow.
The
pest control official said he wouldn’t disagree. At the same time, he
warned residents that to cut off the rats’ food supply, they need to
consider other food sources beyond discarded garbage.
Among
those, he said, are fruit trees and vegetable gardens, fecal material from dogs
or other animals, even the seeds placed in bird feeders. What they should know,
he said, is that when rats are desperate they’ll eat anything.
But
what are residents to do if they keep their own property neat and clean and a
neighbor does not?
That
is where the town is going to need residents’ housing official of any
neighbors who are not getting with the program so they can be warned and cited
if they fail to comply, Lombardi told the residents.
“I
can only say, on behalf of the town, that we’re not going to let a dozen
individuals create a problem for the rest of us,” Lombardi said.
“They will be dealt with.”
And
yes, if residents take the collective steps to deny the rats the food source,
there is another step that can also be employed: rat poison. Ann DeBlois, of
2215 Mineral Spring Ave., said she does not live in the same neighborhood that
was the main focus of concern, but that she, too, had observed many rats of
late roaming through her property and wondered what she could do. She said
she’d be very uncomfortable about having any poison on her property,
given the presence of a 2-year-old child.
Tudino
said the kind of poison used by professional exterminators minimizes that risk
to other animals and children. To get at the poisoned food, the rat would have
to go into a strategically placed poison station. And because the poison would
be tethered to the inside, the rat would not be able to take the food out, but
would have to eat it there.
The
best poison, he said, would be one that would take a week or so to take effect.
That way other rats would not immediately become alarmed and would join in the
feast.
Tudino
acknowledged that if residents do not move to curb the rat problem, the problem
could get much bigger. It only takes 22 days for a female rat to conceive and
give birth to an average litter of 8 or 9 baby rodents, and it only takes a
month for a baby rodent to fully mature. And they have powerful teeth, stronger
than iron, with a bite that exerts 7,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.
DelPonte
said he would not dispute that at all, since rats on his property were able to
chew their way into his garage, biting through Masonite and even concrete.
Tudino
suggested that residents invest in metal garbage cans, saying that plastic ones
may prove too vulnerable.
The
large heavy duty plastic containers used by the City of Providence, he
acknowledged, also may have helped Providence in reducing its own rodent
problem.
When
residents complained last night that even if they buy a new trash can it is
quickly dented by trash haulers, Lombardi took note, saying the town is in the
process of seeking bids on a new trash-hauling contract, and will consider how
carefully garbage gets picked in awarding the new contract.