Suburbs' new neighbors: rats
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Deanna Altizer is Eastside Exterminator's "rat woman."
One recent morning, the 31-year-old shimmied on her stomach along the 24-inch crawl space of a two-story Mercer Island home in search of trapped rats, and then headed over to Southeast Bellevue, where she climbed up a ladder to poke around the eaves of a roof. There she found a rat carcass as well as four pink newborns wrapped in the insulation.
"Every job's a new adventure. It's me against the rats," she said.
Long a problem in downtown Seattle, where sightings are frequent, the rodents are increasingly showing up in the suburbs, including such Eastside cities as Bellevue, Medina and Mercer Island.
"There are a lot of advantages to being in a suburban setting," said Marilyn Christensen, public-health veterinarian for the Seattle and King County public-health department. "There's a lot more composting of household waste, they have dogs and critters that they're feeding and they have greenbelts and habitat. Wouldn't you like to live there?"
Although there is no way of knowing how many rats call the Puget Sound area home, a series of mild winters has encouraged breeding, and increased construction has disrupted habitat - forcing rats to find new homes and keeping exterminators busy.
Bellevue-based Cascade Pest Control, which serves the entire Seattle area, has seen rat calls increase from one or two a week five years ago, to three or four per day, said service manager Kevin Peterson.
Absolute Pest Control, which serves King and South Snohomish counties, has gone from 30 rat calls a month to 400 over the same period, said general manager Derek Tall. Other exterminators also reported a marked increase in rat-control business.
Most surprising to residents is the frequency of rats on the Eastside, said Christensen.
"The Eastsiders want to think there aren't any rats over there - they're the ones who seem particularly surprised" about reports of rats, she said. "People tend to think of rats and mice as being a lower-class, dirty-neighborhood sort of phenomenon instead of a wild animal that only needs to find a place to live and things to eat."
Indeed, Medina and Mercer Island generate the most business for Kirkland-based Eastside Exterminators, said co-owner Alex Altizer, although he cautioned against concluding that more rats live in the two cities.
"Both have a lot of wooded areas and lots of water and food sources," he said. "But rats are a bigger problem than people would like to believe. They're everywhere."
Rats aren't discriminatory when they select a home - they only want a warm place to nest. And they'll travel up to 100 yards to find food crumbs and garbage as well as pet food and dog droppings.
Puget Sound rats come in two main types. Black rats - also known as roof rats or ship rats - mainly make their homes in attics and trees. Brown rats - also known as house rats, Norway rats or sewer rats - are bigger (8 to 10 inches) and make their homes in basements and sewers, and can burrow into the ground.
Most disturbing is their reproduction rate, said Don Pace, a health and environment inspector for the Seattle and King County Public Health Department.
If a single pair of rats and their offspring lived in ideal conditions - where they had ample food, shelter and water and no predators - the pair would become 29,000 in a year, Pace said, noting that an average litter ranges from nine to 12 rats and gestation lasts just 22 days.
Although the nocturnal rodents can spread diseases and contaminate food sources through their feces, the main threat is the destruction they cause, according to the health department. While in search of nesting materials, rats often damage furniture and pipes, and chew the insulation off electric wires. They also can cause other problems by attracting insects and beetles.
Lori Gunnell first saw a rat near her home outside Woodinville three years ago, in broad daylight.
Gunnell believes the construction of seven houses surrounding her one-acre lot was the cause. Since then, rat droppings often litter the floor of her potting shed and a rat will sporadically make its way into a trap she's set there.
"Nobody wants to think they have them. But we have a lovely home in a lovely neighborhood, and if we have them, others must as well," she said.
The health department suggests residents take preventive measures such as sealing garbage bins, picking up pet food and covering all openings into the home. Its Web site has more information.
Gina Kim can be reached at 206-464-2761 or gkim@seattletimes.com.