Hollister’s rodent population is not extraordinary
Rats.
Hollister city officials say they are not a problem, and one
city worker has the evidence he says proves it.
Last summer, for eight weeks Mike Chambless, the code
enforcement officer for the city of Hollister, set out traps. Each
week he would set out 12 traps and during the duration of his
testing Chambless only captured five rats, three of which he said
were pets. He did, however, capture lots of gophers.
Hollister’s rodent population is not extraordinary
Rats.
Hollister city officials say they are not a problem, and one city worker has the evidence he says proves it.
Last summer, for eight weeks Mike Chambless, the code enforcement officer for the city of Hollister, set out traps. Each week he would set out 12 traps and during the duration of his testing Chambless only captured five rats, three of which he said were pets. He did, however, capture lots of gophers.
“We get calls from people, but most of the time it’s the same people that are always calling,” Chambless said.
Chambless tested in several different areas around the city, but he said all of the tests showed the same results. Through his testing Chambless was also able to determine that the rats are not coming from the sewers, which is often the case, but rather from the abundance of empty lots that currently exist in Hollister, due to the moratorium on growth.
Once the city’s building moratorium is lifted, the number of vacant lots in Hollister will diminish, but that may just displace the rodents and drive them into the sewers.
The Norway rat, which is the other name for the common brown rat, differs from mice in that it is significantly larger. Mature rats range between 5-10 ounces and are usually about 15 inches long including their ratty tails. The rats typically have coarse, brown fur with a pale gray underside, small eyes, naked ears and a scaly tail that is shorter than the length of their head and body.
Like some other rodent species, rats are commonly found in all major cities of the world because they are associated with humans.
Norway rats have a high reproductive rate and have evolved and adapted to urban areas as the result of their opportunistic and omnivorous behavior. Due to the rat’s large size and aggression, they tend to displace other rodent species. They can survive in a variety of different habitats and take advantage of shelters and resources provided by vacant buildings, croplands and empty lots. They have also adapted to different climates, which is enabled by human habitation and a constant supply of food.
Norway rats are found in cellars and basements of houses and they thrive in sewers. They build underground burrows with long tunnels and chambers for food storage and nests.
Their nests are found inside and outside, usually located within sewers, storm drains, crawl spaces, storage rooms and any cluttered area. Typically rats will eat anything they can find, including garbage, soap, candy, fruits, grains, seeds and even other rodents and animals.
“People feeding their animals outside is a problem,” Chambless said. “People leaving fruit on their trees and letting it fall on the ground is also a problem, but since it occurs on private property it is not the city’s problem.”
Exterminators in this area haven’t seen too much of an increase in calls, but there have been some calls. Ed Brady, owner of EBCO Pest Control in Hollister, does get some calls concerning rats, but not an extensive number.
Throughout the Central Coast this is a growing problem, according to Wayne Bellville, pest control department manager for Casner Exterminating, which does work in San Benito County.
“It’s a problem pretty much anywhere you go,” Bellville said. “Three to four years ago we would get five or six calls per month, now we’re getting twice that many a week, maybe as many as 30 calls per week.”
Bellville also explained that construction stirs up rat populations.
Location can also be a major factor, according to Chambless. Houses located close to the river or near vacant lots are more likely to see rats, the same goes for people who feed their animals outside.
“We haven’t found any rats in storm drains or in the sewer,” Chambless said. “The cases we’ve discovered have been on private property and that’s a private problem, not a city problem.”
Kristy and Roger Stevenson recently found their cat in the backyard with a rat in its mouth. They figured it was probably from their woodpile.
“I could tell it wasn’t a mouse because it was too big,” Roger Stevenson said. “I imagined it must have come over from the river.”
Rats can cause structural damage by burrowing underneath buildings and walkways and gnawing through walls, pipes and electrical wires. They have even reportedly started fires by gnawing matches and have caused floods by burrowing through dams. They transmit diseases directly by biting people and contaminating food and indirectly through the lice and fleas they carry.
There are a number of ways people can protect themselves against the threat of rats. Some of these include snap traps, habitat destruction and chemical control. Rats are smart. Some have learned to avoid traps, and others have developed resistance to poisons. The other problem with using poisons is that if the rat manages to ingest the poison and then goes back into the walls of a house, it will decay there and cause a nuisance.
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached at [email protected].
