Sudbury now Ontario's fifth 'rattiest' city

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Sudbury is the fifth rattiest city in Ontario, according to a new list released Tuesday by pest control experts Orkin Canada.

Orkin said in a release yhe findings are based on the number of commercial and residential rodent (rats and mice) treatments carried out in 2018.

Toronto tops the list, followed by Mississauga, Scarborough and Ottawa.

“Orkin Canada is reminding homeowners that rodents need only a small hole to gain entry into a property, and vermin can transmit a number of serious diseases,” the company said in a release.

“Homeowners are being urged to check perimeter walls for potential entry points and take preventative action to avoid a number of mischief problems.”

For more information about rodent prevention, visit orkincanada.ca.

Rodent prevention tips

– Trim the Trees: Landscaping can be a big-rodent attractant. Keep shrubbery cut back at least one meter from the exterior walls of your home to eliminate any hiding spots for rodents and to avoid giving them a “jumping off” point.

– Cut Off the Water: Eliminate any moisture sources, necessary for pests’ survival, such as clogged gutters or water gathering in trash or recycling bins.

– Inspect both inside and outside your property for rodent droppings, burrows and rub marks along baseboards and walls. The more quickly rodents are detected, the better.

– Close the Gap: Look for possible entry points outside the home, seal all cracks larger than a quarter of an inch and install weather strips at the bottom of exterior doors.

– Keep your property clean, inside and out. Clean up crumbs and spills as soon as they happen to avoid leaving food residue or sugary substances that can attract rodents. Store all food (including pet food) in tightly-sealed containers like plastic bins, and never leave food or dishes sitting out overnight.

A more radical solution some are looking at is genetically modifying male rats so they only produce male offspring, which could help solve rodent problem in Toronto and other communities.

Experts say the rate problem worsened in the last year.

These mutated male rats would reduce the number of breeding females and slash the population without the use of poisons — substances to which the rodents are now building up a resistance.

“(Lsst year) 2018 wasn’t a great year. It definitely seemed to be worse and they migrate everywhere,” said Brian Martin, of Orkin pest control, who has heard of the practice of mutating rats, but says it’s not being done in Canada.

“I will look for it (gene modification) in the future. As many tools we have in our tool box will help.”

The project to genetically edit rats comes from Edinburgh University where Dolly the cloned sheep was created. The rats would be modified in a laboratory to eliminate the x chromosome in the sperm needed to produce females and then released into cities to mate with the native population.

Pest controllers are limited by Health Canada as to what poisons can be used so children and dogs don’t come into contact with them and get sick, said Daniel Mackie, with Greenleaf pest controllers.

“In theory, it would work well and slow the population, but then another male could migrate so there is no silver bullet with rats. New rats will come in. You would have to quarantine or Donald Trump the entire area with a wall,” Mackie said.

“I think you have to research this type of birth control approach. What if one of these rats gets eaten by a cat or a hawk and this birth control trait gets passed on.”

The infertility gene drive could solve the problem and take deadly poisons out of the equation, said veterinarian Jamie Rothenburger, a professor of anatomic pathology at the University of Calgary.

With the Rocky Mountains to the west and vast stretches of buffer-zone prairie lands to the east, Alberta is the only province that’s rat free.

“It’s astounding how the Alberta rat police have been able to stop the invasion from Saskatchewan,” said Rothenburger, who has studied rats for seven years.

“A rat’s reproductivity is incredible and not having them is a huge savings to urban infrastructure,” Rothenburger said, adding rats are a destructive pest.

She added researchers are now finding cases of rats which ingest and survive poisons so it may be time to look at the alternatives.

The life span of a rat is only a year so genetic modification may have some success, said Jason Munshi-South, a professor of biology and rat expert at Fordham University in the Bronx, where garbage bags are regularly moved around by feeding rodents.

“People have a tendency to look for a magic solution. This could take, maybe several generations. If it worked fast enough, it could have a positive effect,” Munshi-South said.