Plenty of buzz on rats locally

But very few official reports
Amid news reports of rats returning to Alberta, local residents also are reporting rats here in Fort Frances.

Perhaps it’s a natural population cycle on an upswing or maybe there’s another reason. For now, however, the rodents’ uncommon presence here is a mystery.
One Walker Avenue resident told the Times on Friday that he’s heard there’s quite a few rats in town, particularly in the east end.
He added he caught one and helped poison another two at a neighbour’s property about a month ago.
The man said he’s never had problems with rats before, and thankfully hasn’t seen any more since last month.
In recent weeks, another north-end resident also told the Times there were rats in their neighbourhood while a woman living on the 200 block of Scott Street reported seeing a live rat sitting on her doorstep and a dead one in the nearby alleyway.
Still others have said a relative, a friend, or a friend of a friend has spotted the vermin, alive or dead—the latter sometimes at the tooth and claw of a family pet.
On Aug. 27, Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. reported that a few rodents had been located within and outside of Rainycrest Long-Term Care here, and that management was taking every necessary precaution to ensure the safety of its residents, staff, and the public, including consultation with the Northwest Health Unit.
But public health inspector Brian Norris of the Northwestern Health Unit said aside from being contacted by Rainycrest, there has been very few official reports.
“We’ve only, as far as I know, gotten one call,” he noted.
“But that being said, in the community I have been hearing a lot of people talking, about seeing them or their animals catching them, anecdotally, things like that.
“But this is the first time, really, in years I have heard this many people talking about rats,” added Norris.
“I don’t if it’s a cyclical thing, if it’s the season and something’s different . . . but I am hearing more about it in the community,” he said, adding he talked to one man whose dog caught three rats.
But Norris said he’s not had local stores, hotels, or restaurants phoning for advice.
“So, knock on wood, that’s good,” he remarked.
“Hopefully, it’s just a blip on the radar, a cyclical thing, but we’ll have to play it by ear, I guess.
“Maybe we’ve always had them but the population has exploded for some reason,” Norris speculated.
“I have talked to people that have lived in Fort for many years and they’ve said they have seen them, for sure, in the past—it’s not common, but . . . this year, I have been hearing more anecdotally.”
The town said it has heard of some rats being sighted, but it doesn’t seem to be a serious problem at this point.
“At this time, the Town of Fort Frances has heard of some rumours of people who have sighted rats, maybe even people that have trapped some rats, but we are not fully aware of any issue at this point in time,” said Rick Hallam, superintendent of Planning and Development.
“However, having stated that, if this is an issue in Fort Frances, it’s very definitely an issue that is relevant to what the Northwestern Health Unit does for the residents of Fort Frances,” he added.
“Certainly, if there is an identified problem, the Town of Fort Frances would sit down with the Northwestern Health Unit at their request, not ours, to discuss anything that we can do to assist where or if possible,” Hallam explained.
“But other than that, we have nothing to offer on any concerns that people may have at this time.”
Steve Gushulak, owner of Fort Frances General Supply, said he’s heard of a few reports of rats, but not so many that it seems to be a big problem.
“We have sold a few more rat traps, specifically the snap kind, which would be more specifically-geared to rats because of the size of them,” he noted.
He added that while the store has sold more traps than it normally would in an average year, it’s not unusual to sell pest control products in the late summer and fall, and the store hasn’t had to order more due to high demand.
“We’re not getting rich off of rat traps, unfortunately,” he chuckled.
But word of rats has people talking.
“Any time you even hear about someone having rats, it’s a little out of the ordinary for around here,” Gushulak said.
“You hear about mice, you hear about squirrels and that kind of stuff, but rats seem to catch your attention a little more.”
Local Canadian Tire associate dealer Rick Smith said he’s noticed a temporary spike in sales for anything related to rat poisons and traps.
“I would term it as maybe a marginal increase in that product,” he remarked.
“I have ordered extra in and it seems to have slowed down in the last week or so,” said Smith, adding it’s normal to see these particular products selling in the fall.
“We generally start to see a bump right now—the mice are coming in, the rats are coming inside,” he explained.
“We’ve certainly seen an increase, but I would term it as marginal.”
In related news, rats were reported by one homeowner in International Falls last month.
City officials brought in pest control to set up traps and monitor an area located between the Rainy River and Highway 11/71.
But Falls Mayor Tim “Chopper” McBride, who also is executive director of the North Koochiching Area Sanitary District, said it appears the rat sightings are not cause for alarm.
“Every society has a rodent problem. It’s natural, you can expect it,” he reasoned.
“The urban legends are the problem—‘the sewers are full of rats,’” McBride said.
“But the Fort and Falls, our sewers are six-, eight-, 12-inch lines,” he noted. “They’re not the sewers of London or an ‘Indiana Jones’ kind of thing.”
McBride said there’s several possible reasons why some rats here are on the move, ranging from them being disturbed from their nesting place by a project going on just outside the city, to the dry weather, to garbage and urban blight.
“But we don’t see any more rats than are normally living in society,” he added.
“We have trapped a few, we are taking care of it, we using due diligence just like everybody should.
“But it’s not a pandemic at all,” McBride stressed.