Danvers Rat Complaints Are On The Rise

DANVERS, MA -- One woman claims an exterminator told her that Danvers "was having a huge rat problem." Another saw woman strolling down Walnut Street at 4 pm on a recent afternoon. One resident saw rats in her Danvers backyard this summer for the first time in 65 years. And still another Danvers resident opened her trash bin to find a dead rat sleeping on top.

Next door in Peabody, city officials have been dealing with an explosion of the local rat population since last year. But the groundswell of posts on social media in recent days suggest the problem has spread to Danvers. A post reporting rats on a closed, Facebook group for Danvers residents Tuesday night had generated more than 80 responses in just 12 hours.

"This is insane!! I could trap 4 rats a day and I wouldn’t make a dent in this population," the original poster wrote on Facebook.

Patch has reached out to the Danvers Board of Health for comment on the issue and confirmation that the anecdotal evidence on social media is indeed reflecting an increase in rat complaints. We'll update this story if we hear back from them.

In the mean time, we found these tips for keeping rats at bay:

• Keep food in metal or glass containers with tight fitting lids.
• Tidy inside the house and around the yard - less clutter means less places to hide.
• Put outdoor rubbish bags in metal bins with securely fitted lids to stop them feeding from contents.
• Clean up pet food and bird seed debris, and store pet food in solid containers with fitted lids - preferably above ground level.
• Keep yards free from debris and keep clutter to a minimum.
• If you have a compost heap don’t include organic food waste, as this will attract them.

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Patch file photo via Shutterstock.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).