RATS! Got them? Seen them? Concerned about them? This survey’s for you

| Health | West Seattle news | West Seattle online

As much as many love classic cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse, their real-life rodent counterparts tend to evoke different sentiments – and for good reason. Public Health-Seattle & King County‘s Environmental Health Services team wants to know what you know about rodents in Seattle, so they are hoping you can spare a few minutes to answer this online survey. You can also access it via this QR code:

In the note asking that we share this with you, Public Health explains, “The information will be used to help us improve our programming and technical assistance offerings.” (Did you even know Public Health has a rodent program? Read about it here.)

Mellow Kitty August 24, 2022 (2:14 pm)

Super easy and fast.

Ocean August 24, 2022 (3:09 pm)

When completing the survey, under the “How did you hear about” question be sure to write in “West Seattle Blog” in the “other” option!

WSB August 24, 2022 (3:52 pm)

It’s funny you mention that – when we first got word of this earlier, I went through the survey (we try to preview surveys before writing about them) and noticed that the “how did you hear about this” question did NOT include an option for “news outlet,” so I mentioned that to the sender and they said they’d make that change. (Although I’d hope the survey provider would also show referrals so they can directly see where respondents came from!)
- newnative August 24, 2022 (4:42 pm)
  
  I checked news source. Thanks for the notice. We are seeing A LOT of rats in our alley. The assisted living facility has lots of food trash. Much more than they used to and it is never completely emptied so the rats and crows are always eating, guarding and making a mess.
  - FRJ August 25, 2022 (8:20 am)
    
    Which assisted living facility?

Mj August 24, 2022 (5:19 pm)

With three kitties rodents do not reside at my house.

RickB August 24, 2022 (5:20 pm)

From the Seattle Times: Oh, rats! Seattle is one of the rattiest places in U.S.https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/oh-rats-seattle-ranks-no-7-for-rat-sightings/

cjboffoli August 24, 2022 (8:53 pm)

I used to see rats running along the top of my fence. Then the opossums started coming around. Since then my motion-activated security cameras haven’t recorded a single rat (in about 18 months). Hat tip to North America’s only marsupial!

Kersti Elisabeth Muul August 24, 2022 (9:31 pm)

Here is your reminder to not ever use second generation anticoagulant rodenticides.

andreea August 24, 2022 (9:51 pm)

Great survey, but FYI, trigger warning, includes images of rats…

Wendell August 25, 2022 (7:36 am)

I killed two young ‘uns the other day. The big moma is currently too smart for the trap. We usually get a rat or two when there’s a house being worked on or being built close by. The rental on our street was being prepped for new tenants last week, it’s a pretty decent property but we think that’s where our latest rat visitors came from.

JeffK August 25, 2022 (7:38 am)

Thanks, did the survey. It seems whenever some new nearby construction/demo happens on California the rats run into the neighborhood.

waikikgirl August 25, 2022 (8:42 am)

Bird feeders attract rats too. We had one in our front yard and one day I look out and see this rat munching away on the seeds that fell to the ground…you never saw someone move so quickly to yank that feeder out of the front yard and had the husband remove and replace the sod where the seeds were at! LOL!!! Now we just have a water fountain, hummer feeder, and plenty of flowers and plants the birds can feed on.

Auntie August 25, 2022 (9:28 am)

When we had chickens, we had rats burrowing up into the coop area. Once we got rid of the chickens, the rats moved along – probably to the house up the street where they still have chickens!

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