Rats multiply in some Waltham neighborhoods, causing public health emergency

WALTHAM, Mass. — Marie Farrell says some garden invaders set up camp under her Hostas and Hydrangeas a year ago and now she can’t get rid of them.

“I think it's gotten worse because they never stopped,” Farrell told Boston 25 News. “And what started as smaller rats -- they're now much larger rats.”

Marie is one of many residents in Waltham complaining about rats.

The problem is so bad the city recently issued an advisory, which called the increasing rodent population in certain neighborhoods a public health emergency.

One of those neighborhoods is Lakeview, where Ed Keniston has lived his entire life.

But it’s only been in recent months that he found a dead rat in his basement – the first he’s seen.

“Since then, I've caught about four or five more inside the house -- pretty good-sized,” Keniston said.

The city baited sewers and drains in Lakeview, but found no evidence of rats there.

So Keniston called a pest control company.

“I've probably spent five or six hundred dollars already so far,” he explained.

The mayor's office told Boston 25 News it has taken numerous measures to get the rat problem under control, including:

• Inspecting neighborhoods
• Requiring pre-baiting before demolition
• And the clean-up of derelict properties

One obvious piece of advice from the city is to not leave trash out because it attracts rats.

Well, there is no trash out at Marie Farrell's house and she even went one step better. Instead of plastic cans, she's got galvanized steel ones. She had to get galvanized steel because last year the rats ate through her plastic cans.

“Nobody wants to be out here,” Farrell said of her little backyard paradise she says she has lost to the rats. “We’ll stand on our porches. But nobody wants to come down here [to the garden].”

MORE: Rats are running amok in Waltham, residents say

Cox Media Group