MADISON (WKOW) — A North Madison neighborhood is dealing with a problem nobody wants.
Byron Strong and his wife have some unwelcome guests.
“I found a dead rat over there on the side of my property the other day,” Strong said. “Coming in here, I saw a rat the other day, [Sunday].” Strong says the rats chewed a hole in the side of his garage.
He says squirrels started the damaged, but rats continue to tear up the installation. He and his neighbors now see rats popping up all over the place.
Enough for their alder, Syed Abbas, to try and get something done about it.
“There was concern about the rat population increasing in the district,” Abbas said.” “So I immediately sent an email to public health and asked them to investigate that issue.”
Madison and Dane County Public Health got the request Monday morning. They are now going to start investigating the issue.
So far, at the Strong’s, the rats haven’t gone inside the house but we’ve seen them get more brazen going from the garage, to here underneath the deck. People along the block are now calling exterminators to their homes.
Strong says he hopes the city addresses the root of the problem, before he has to pay for a visit or someone is injured.
“It’s just not really comforting out here with the kids and they want to play on the swing sets and I know right behind us is where the rats like to be,” he said.
For now, neighbors are sharing simple ideas to slow down the rats’ spread.
“[My neighbor] did mention something about the compost bin attracting them so we’ll do our part with that and get rid of it it’s going to attract them,” Strong said.
One exterminator working in the area says he doesn’t know where the rats came from, but they’re well established now.
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