There are not many people who would welcome rodents scrambling all over their backyards, especially rats. – Rodents infesting Pierrefonds backyard!
And when the number of them are growing, it can become a very serious problem – especially for a woman in Pierrefonds who claims her backyard is being increasingly infested. This past Tuesday January 28th, resident Tracey Featherstone said her son had called her over to a window overlooking their backyard and what she saw shocked her. Rats were all over, scampering into her yard from the other side of a neighbour’s fence. She blamed them for the problem and said she sees rats regularly, even a dead rat in her backyard over the summer, according to a Global News report.
Rodents infesting Pierrefonds backyard
Over the last several years, they (the next-door neighbours) have been feeding the wildlife excessively, she told them, showing a hole in the fence apparently leading to a large, open-air composting bin her neighbours keep on the other side. “The homemade compost that’s up against my fence seeps through into my yard, literally piled up. There’s like shells coming into my yard, it seeps through and I have to clean it up, she also said. Featherstone claimed she reached out to the city of Pierrefonds to help find a solution, but nothing had been done. I wanted an inspector to come shut that compost down, and hopefully get them (the neighbours) to stop feeding the wildlife.”
She said her shed near the fence is full of mouse and rat traps. Her partner David Pelletier added that a storage bin near the fence is often full of mice and they have put glue traps near the fence in an effort to catch and kill the rats. But their neighbour, Sandy Forrester, claimed her compost had never been a problem in the over 30 years she and her husband have been maintaining it. “It’s natural, organic composting. There are no meats, no greases, nothing. We’ve been feeding the birds, and never had an issue until last summer, she said to Global. She even hired an exterminator to deal with the rats, but they told her the rats might have sought refuge in her compost pile after being displaced by roadwork, or the closure of the quarry on Oakwood. He said it’s a colony,” she continued with tears, “they have to have come from somewhere. He’s put of 48 pieces of poison, which will not only kill the rats but all the birds and the squirrels.”
Pierrefonds Mayor Jim Beis told Global News he is aware of the problem. The information was given to our services, our inspectors, to make sure they go investigate and apply the necessary bylaws if we could, to correct the situation, he said, and that if he finds no one acted on Featherstone’s first complaint, he will seek an explanation. After they spoke with the Mayor, Tracey Featherstone said city inspectors showed up to investigate and that the exterminator would return for a follow-up visit.
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