‘They kind of scare me:’ Haligonians react to more rodents in city streets

Prevention is the best tactic when trying to keep mice and rats from freeloading in your home.

As the weather gets colder, many rats and mice are trying to move into a cozy home in search of food and shelter.

In 2022, Orkin Canada, a pest-control company, rated Halifax the fourth “rattiest” city in Atlantic Canada.

“We do see an increase of rodents year over year and a lot of it has to do with us as a society,” says Kenneth Penney, an area manager with Orkin Canada. “Looking at a place like Halifax, where you have a port city, it has a lot of importing and exporting happening. So things are being shipped in. But then also too, you have that downtown core, a lot of commercial businesses, so places that are usually compressed.

“Halifax is an older city. And then on the outskirts of it, looking at the suburban areas, you have these woodland areas where rodents tend to thrive.”

Penney says construction sites tend to be a hot spot for rodents.

“If you’re having a lot of construction, which most cities are, they’re trying to expand or trying to evolve, you’re ripping up habitats. And when you do that, the residential populace, they have to go somewhere else.”

Some Haligonians say they’ve seen their fair share of rodents in city streets.

“I’ve noticed a few, right around this area here on Spring Garden Road. When you come over here at 3 p.m. at night, you can see them scurrying around,” says Glen Davidson.

Makayla O’Brien hopes the city does something to combat it.

“I’ve noticed a couple… they kind of scare me so I kind of stay back from them,” she says. “It does bother me, but I do feel bad. I don’t want them being killed or something. Hopefully, they find a better place to be.”

Natasha Chestnut, the executive director of Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia, says restaurants in the province take the issue seriously.

“They’re always doing their due diligence, things like disposing of waste accordingly, having appropriate traps, and how they store food. I see a lot of the restaurants actually will hire a pest or rodent control company that comes in and help support them to do the maintenance.

“They’re also held to a really high standard of accountability under the Health and Safety Act, especially where they’re serving food. It’s always front and centre and top of mind for the restaurants when it comes to that,” says Chestnut.

Penney says rodents are generally attracted to cluttered spaces and believes it’s especially important for people to ensure their property is structurally sound.

“It’s this time of the year that you want to make sure that, number one, your home or your business, or your storage unit or anything, is structurally sound (and) that your doors are closed. All the seals are properly working,” says Penney.

He recommends consulting a pest control professional to address the root issue, before it becomes a heath hazard.

“We’ve seen instances in homes where people who have not cleaned out their toaster since they purchased it, that a rat was actually living behind the microwave and then coming out and feeding on the crumbs, from the toaster and going back and living behind the microwave,” Penney says. “You can imagine if you have something like that in your home or, in a restaurant or in a lunchroom and it’s crawling over your desks or crawling over your tables or your countertops…there’s a lot of potential for cross-contamination.”

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