Waltham woman struggling to get rid of stubborn rodents from property

WALTHAM, Mass. — After five years of doing battle, Marie Farrell knows a thing or two about rats.

"This is another huge burrow hole," she said, sticking a plastic wiffleball bat through the mulch that dresses her flower garden. She then parts the leaves of a vast Queen of the Prairie plant to point out another gaping maw.

But at noon on a hot summer day, you would be hard-pressed to spot a rodent problem in Farrell's Lunda Street yard. Her perennial border is joyfully chaotic, the lawn determinedly neat. But after a mild winter, Farrell said the rat problem is worse than ever. And she can't understand why.

"They didn't even put in their vegetable garden this year," she pointed to her neighbors. "Because that was a great place for them to eat. They stopped. These people are clean," she added, pointing to another house. "Everybody here is clean. So now where is the problem coming from? And why isn't the city doing anything about it?"

Waltham does have an active rodent control program, Thomas Creonte, the city's assistant director of public health, told Boston 25 News. For reasons unknown, the rodent problem has been particularly bad the past couple of years, he added.

In some cities, the loss of garbage and waste from restaurants closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been thought to cause rodents to look for food elsewhere. However, Creonte does not think that’s the case in Waltham, though the city only recently opened its many restaurants to outdoor dining.

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Creonte said the city will bait private property and, if the entire neighborhood is affected, will treat multiple homes.

Farrell said they are currently using a private exterminator but without success.

"They're running over the bait boxes," she said.

Worse, the rodents are now getting into the house. First, Farrell trapped and killed a baby rat in the kitchen. She later found another adult rat dead in the basement.

While it's obviously distressing to have rodents get inside, Farrell has another reason to be upset they've found a way in: her husband has Stage IV cancer.

"If that list of infections that they carry comes into my house, he's dead," she said.

With Farrell's garden in its summertime glory, she regrets not being able to comfortably tend to it or enjoy her yard.

"I'm afraid I'm going to get bit," she said. "I don't want to come out here. I don't even want to be out here. It's not bad enough that you can't go out, you can't go anywhere. But you can't even set foot in your own yard?

“How can you live with this? You can’t.”

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