Hamilton ranks 15th among worst rat refuges in Ontario — but are there really less furry vermin around?
Hamilton is slipping down the ladder - and for reasons you might hope.
A pest control company has pegged Hamilton as the 15th rattiest" city in Ontario based on the number of rat and mice treatments they administered at residential and commercial locations in 2020.
It marks the first time Hamilton has fallen outside the annual list's top 10 since Orkin Canada first released it in 2016.
In 2019, the city ranked ninth among 25 Ontario cities. The year before that seventh. And the two consecutive years before that fifth.
But are there really now less furry vermin in Hamilton?
I wouldn't say so, no," opined Jane Murrell, supervisor of the city's health hazards and vector-borne diseases program.
For one, Murrell pointed to Orkin's not-so-scientific list, which doesn't weigh results for a city's population or include treatment calls from other pest control companies. For two, she offered a simpler explanation: rats don't just up and disappear in waves.
Rats are part of any urban dwelling and will always be in the environment, but they can fluctuate in population," she said. An area can never have a rat issue or have sightings - but they're there, you just can't see them because it's not out of control."
The city couldn't provide any rat-related data because it stopped addressing low-risk pest complaints during COVID.
Still, Murrell considers Hamilton's low ranking on the rattiest" list a cautious positive. She said it likely means more people are taking domestic pest control into their owns hands and heeding to long-broadcasted public health tips.
With rats, it's easier for a homeowner to do themselves," she said, as opposed to getting rid of cockroaches and bedbugs - which definitely require pest control who have access to certain chemicals. But poison, traps, sticky boards ... you don't need a licence for that."
Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com