CALGARY – With a top provincial inspector arriving today to investigate the Norway rat scare in northeast Calgary, and rodent discoveries in four other southern Alberta communities, it’s been a bad few weeks for the reputably rat-free province.
After finding a suspected second Norway rat behind a northeast Calgary house this week, city bylaw crews set two dozen poison traps and cleared dirt and weeds around the four or five rat burrows and nearby back-alley garages Monday in hopes of quashing the problem.
Phil Merrill, a 37-year veteran of Alberta Agriculture’s rat patrol, will arrive from Lethbridge this morning to determine if the disease-carrying critters have been nesting or are becoming a real infestation, based on concerns from the city’s rodent expert.
"From what she told me, I’m not sure that there’s that many, but there could be," Merrill said.
"We get real concerned when there’s an infestation in the city because if we lose control of it, if it gets out of hand, we’d never get control of it once they got into the sewer system and some of the poor areas."
CBC News reported the rat finding was in Coventry Hills, between Deerfoot Trail and Harvest Hills Boulevard. Thirty neighbours have received letters from the city alerting them to the scare, said city bylaw and animal services chief Bill Bruce.
"By the end of the week we should have a handle on this," he said.
It’s unclear where the rats came from, but there’s no known link to Saskatchewan or Swift Current, where an infestation has become a local crisis, with reports of humans being bitten.
It happens sporadically in the city and throughout Alberta — mostly on farms near the Saskatchewan border –but in recent weeks Norway rats have been reported deep in Alberta: Taber, Newell County, Airdrie and one at Springbank’s fire station, Merrill said.
"I’m not sure particularly why–whether the rats have heard Obama’s economic plan is not too good and they’re escaping or what — but in the last month, we’ve had a real influx of rat activity," he said, throwing in a rip at U. S. president’s policies.
Despite the unusually busy spell for rat patrollers like Merrill, none of the pest watchers think Alberta is close to surrendering its much-boasted status as the world’s only major rat-free zone.
It’s naive to take the term too literally, Bruce said. "We occasionally get one here, but the (control) program takes care of that quickly."
No other province or large jurisdiction has been able to get a handle on its rat problem like Alberta.
"The minute it’s identified by a member of the public that there’s a rat or a possible rat, we’re going to take some action," said Floyd Mullaney, a provincial inspection branch head. "So, as a result, we don’t have settlements of rats in the province of Alberta."
Rat control costs the provincial government about $500,000 a year, not including thousands of dollars spent by municipal control branches, Mullaney said.
But the effort is said to save tens of millions a year, because Norway rats are notorious for crop damage, disease, food contamination and chewing away at structures.
Some insulation ripped from the back wall of Springbank’s fire station was the telltale sign of a rat. Monday morning, officials found a dead Norway rat in a nearby trap.
"It’s a bit shocking," said Rocky View County fire chief Wayne Brown.
Provincial staff often warn the public of the dangers: one breeding pair of Norway rats can produce 15,000 descendants in on year.
"I talk to producers all the time who say, ‘For goodness sake, Floyd, don’t do anything with that program,’" Mullaney said. "’Ifyouneedtoincreasethe taxes, increase the taxes.’ "
jmarkusoff@tHeHerald. canwest.com
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