RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Mayor blames open trash cans, threatens citations

People living in one section of North Providence say their neighborhood is infested with rats, and the mayor is threatening citations against residents who attract rodents by leaving their trash cans uncovered.

Eyewitness News cameras spotted two dead rats in a yard in the Marieville section of North Providence Wednesday.

Cheryl Rossi has lived there for forty years, but says the neighborhood never had a rodent problem until recently.

"Sometimes if you're driving up and down the street they'll be dead in the road, in somebody's yard, it's disgusting," said Rossi.

She claims the rats are ruining her family's quality of life.

"They've been in our backyard. I didn't even put up my son's pool this year because of these rats," Rossi added. "They've been up and down the street, and at other peoples houses."

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi tells Eyewitness News that food from open trash cans is attracting the rats. He says residents need to make sure their trash is covered to keep the rodents away.

Mayor Lombardi also says the town has hired a professional pest control company to educate residents about what they can do to keep the rats away.

According to the mayor, the next step is to begin citing residents who do not cover their trash.

Mayor Lombardi says the town cannot put out rat poison to kill the rodents, because of liability reasons.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Tens of thousands of rats killed by Hurricane Isaac have washed up onto the beaches of Mississippi

Tens of thousands of rats killed by Hurricane Isaac have washed up onto the beaches of Mississippi and created a foul-smelling mess that officials say will take days to clean up, Reuters reports.

When the hurricane lifted the tides, the water washed across the marshy areas in Louisiana where the semi-aquatic rats live and forced them to ride the waves into Mississippi until they succumbed to exhaustion and drowned, said David Yarborough, a supervisor for Hancock County on the Gulf Coast.

The tides then deposited their bodies on the Mississippi shoreline, he said.

As of Tuesday, about 16,000 of the rodents have been collected in Hancock County, where a hired contractor's clean-up efforts are expected to continue for another week, officials said.

In nearby Harrison County, officials decided to carry out the work themselves. Using shovels and pitchforks, workers have removed 16 tons of the dead rats from beaches since Saturday and taken them to a local landfill.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

What do you see??? To the untrained eye you see nothing but to me I see something that 99.9% of the population would overlook. It’s a decaying rat carcass in leaf/grass debris. I am on a property doing a termite inspection and I look around the surrounding area and find this dead rat about 25FT from the building.

I investigate further and find several rat burrows nearby and alerted the property manager who was thrilled I took the extra effort to uncover this. As a result we were able to nip this potential situation in the bud and protect our client.

Sherlock Holmes = You must train yourself to observe what others overlook.

Martin Hussey
Service Specialist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Dreams About Rats: Dream Meanings Explained

Dreams about rats are a common theme at bedtime. If you or a loved one has been covering this ground at night, you may have questions about what it all might mean. As part of a Huffington Post series on dreams and their meanings, we spoke to Cathleen O'Connor, Ph.D., author of "The Everything Law of Attraction Dream Dictionary," to get expert advice about the meanings of your or your loved one’s dreams about rats. Note: While dream analysis is highly subjective, this post might provide some insight into why this dream occurred or is recurring.

What do dreams about this subject mean?

Before determining what your rat dream means, you must first ask yourself what you associate with rats, says O'Connor. Are you afraid of them or do you think they're cute? "Rats are seen by many people as pests that carry disease or cause other problems so they have many negative connotations," she notes. "Yet rats are also survivors, able to withstand harsh environments and highly intelligent. The meaning will evolve from both your association with the qualities of rats as well as what is going on in your current life."

What can I learn about myself from dreaming about rats?

"The first thing to think about is whether you or someone you know is behaving unethically in a situation in your life," suggests O'Connor. "You often hear the expression that someone is a 'rat,' meaning he is untrustworthy or has betrayed someone." Alternatively, a rat in your dream could represent feeling like you're caught in a maze somewhere in your daily life.

Are there any tricks to avoiding or inducing dreams about this subject?

If you fear rats, set the intention of waking up in a dream if a rat appears. "This is a technique known as lucid dreaming," she says. "In a lucid dream, you can notice you are dreaming and take control of the dream events and overcome your fears." If you want to dream about rats, then visualize rats before falling asleep.

Beyond analysis, what cultural symbolism can be found in dreams about rats?

"In Chinese culture, the first symbol of the zodiac is a rat and people born in a rat year are said to possess the positive qualities, including creativity and intelligence, of a rat," explains O'Connor. "In Hindu tradition, rats are associated with the god Ganesh, who is worshiped as the remover of obstacles. In some Native American traditions, rats are symbols of survival and lack of fear." Dreamers from these various cultural traditions may find a different meaning from those in a traditional western culture.

Who tends to have dreams about this subject most frequently?

According to O'Connor, rat dreams do not affect one swath of the population more than another.

Does it mean anything if the rat is dead in my dream?

Dreaming about a dead rat may mean you're overwhelmed or frightful about a situation in your real life. It could also represent letting go of a relationship, especially if that relationship involves betrayal. "In that case, the dream is letting you know that the situation has come to an end," notes O'Connor.

SOURCE = HUFFINGTON POST

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA