“The rats have trampled a ‘highway’ across our grass, there are so many.”

“Dear PoPville,

We live in Near North East, in the middle of 4 empty houses and a massive restaurant. Rats are becoming an increasingly alarming problem in our alley and now our front yards. We have burrows, nests (including under the hood or our cars) and feces everywhere. The rats have trampled a “highway” across our grass, there are so many. Last night I set 7 traps outside on our property, our usual routine. This morning I found

8 dead rats, including several juveniles and one infant that was caught at the same time as a larger rat. That has never happened before! We have asked the city for help remediating the burrows, but no one has responded, to my knowledge. Someone from the city came to “clean up” an abandoned property, and they left enough debris in the yard to house 1,000 rats. And the city’s bait stations are obviously useless.

A neighbor hired a professional exterminator and they said their work was useless, until the abandoned properties are cleaned up. We’re sort of at a loss, and now worried about a population explosion that we can’t manage on our own. I’m wondering if any of your readers have experience with this, and know what we can do to get back to “normal” rat levels on our street. Appreciate it!”