Frederick neighborhood's residents say they're battling rats
Aug. 9—Residents in Frederick's Carrollton neighborhood said they're battling an infestation of rats, as the city has announced a program to address the problem.
Resident Arlene Kimmel said she and her husband don't sit on their backyard patio on Pinoak Drive anymore, since they started seeing rats several weeks ago.
The small back yard is crisscrossed with several paths where the grass has been beaten down between the house and a nearby shed, presumably by rats.
Kimmel said she's seen rats over the past three to four weeks.
A small pile of yellow insulation lays on the ground near, near a black box with rat poison placed by an exterminator her son hired.
But Kimmel said the exterminator told her, "We're not going to win the battle" by just putting out poison.
Kimmel and her husband aren't the only ones dealing with the rodents.
The rats mainly come out at dusk and in the evenings, but they've been spotted during the daytime hours, as well, said Debbie Santelli.
"They're brazen," Santelli said, as she walked around the home a few doors down from Kimmel's, where she grew up and her brother now lives.
She pointed to a large hole at the front of the house, as well as an area along the fence in the backyard that Santelli said had been covered with grass until recently, but now consisted of a foot or two of dirt.
Her parents, then her brother, have lived in the house for more than 60 years. They have had occasional field mice, but never a problem with rats, she said.
Center Street resident Shirley Walters said she'd had family over for a cookout in May when they spotted a large rat in the backyard.
Since then, she's seen numerous older rats, as well as some younger ones.
Both she and Santelli are concerned about what will happen as the weather gets colder and the rodents look for warmer places to stay.
"We're worried about these things getting in our house," Walters said.
On Wednesday, the city announced that it would work with a professional exterminator to develop a short-term abatement strategy, as well as with the Board of Aldermen and the city's legal department to develop an appropriate ordinance or regulations to mitigate the problem over the long term.
Rodents can carry diseases, either through direct contact or through ticks, mites, fleas or mosquitos that fed on infected animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We are not the first city facing this challenge," Mayor Michael O'Connor said in the statement. "There have been a number of plans executed by other local governments with varying degrees of success.
"My office will work to identify the most successful initiatives and will incorporate aspects of those into our own ordinance for consideration by the Board of Aldermen. I believe together we can effectively allay this challenge facing our residents."
Most of the complaints the city has received have been around the Carrollton area, city spokesman Allen Etzler said Wednesday.
The neighborhood is off Jefferson Street on the southern side of the city, near Mount Olivet Cemetery.
The exterminator and the city's Department of Public Works will survey the area to try to find what's causing the problem, Etzler said.
Walters said something might have gotten the rats stirred up, but she suspects they're not new to the neighborhood.
"They've been around for a long time. We just haven't seen them until now," she said.
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