RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Rats Nibble at Paralyzed Patient in Government Hospital

An elderly paralyzed man, who was on ventilator support, has been seriously injured after allegedly being nibbled at by rats at a government hospital.

The 70-year-old man was found seriously injured yesterday morning by his family members at the Mathura Das Mathur hospital with his ears, lips, nose bitten allegedly by rats. However, hospital authorities have not confirmed that the man was injured in rat attack. It was brought to our notice by a patient's attendant.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Rats can exhibit 8,000LBS of pressure per square inch! Their teeth are harder than copper, concrete, iron and many other materials. This picture shows how a rat got inside a building. The landlord used expanding foam with copper mesh. As you can see the rats buzzed right through it plus the wood door!

How does this stack up against other animals???

Pit Bull (dog): 310 lbs
Lions: 600 lbs
White sharks: 600 lbs
Hyenas: 1,000 lbs
Snapping turtles: 1,000 lbs
Crocodiles: 2,500-6,000 lbs
Tasmanian Devil: 5,100 lbs

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Boston Cop Mailed Dead Rats as Payback in Sex Ring

A Boston transit police officer has been suspended after he was caught mailing dead rats.

Why was he mailing dead rats?

According to CBS Boston, the officer was sending a message to a man who failed to pay the cop's girlfriend or another prostitute for sex.

Not your run-of-the-mill dead rats in the mail story.

MBTA Police Officer Greg Thorpe was caught mailing dead rats to a Hyde Park man, from a UPS store in South Boston about ten days ago. Sources tell the CBS Boston that Thorpe was caught on video by security cameras in a UPS customer service center, mailing two packages. At one point he reportedly looks at the security camera and smiles.

Sources say officer Thorpe's girlfriend offered her "services" on Craigslist and that the uniformed officer would drive her and her friends to appointments in his marked MBTA cruiser during his midnight shift, offering protection.

Sources say one man never paid one of the girls and so Thorpe mailed him the rats.

The MBTA police released a statement, saying, "Greg Thorpe has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation."

Sources tell CBS Boston officer Thorpe may at some point face charges from Boston police for intimidating a witness and animal cruelty.

Source: CBS Boston

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

There is a rodent problem at a southeast Atlanta elementary school.

For months parents told Channel 2 Action New Thomasville Heights Elementary School was infested with rats, and now videos, emails and pictures support their claims.

The school district gave Channel 2's Erica Byfield the documentation after she made an open records request.

Surveillance video from October of this year shows a rodent scurrying through the halls.

Byfield first heard about a possible rat problem from parents.

On Nov. 10, Byfield confirmed the issue after obtaining a letter the school's principal sent to parents.

At the time, one parent told her she saw a rat in the school.

"The rats are so big they look like the size of a rabbits," parent Sherrilyn Cullins said.

An email from August describes why an employee called her supervisor crying uncontrollably.

"A very large field mouse had jumped on top of her when she entered the pantry this morning," the email said.

Another email written in February addresses how big the rodents are.

"They will need a large trap, the visual sight of the rodent is similar to a wood rat," it said.

There are also reports the staff at the school had to throw out food after finding gnaw marks on packages of crackers and pounds of flour and sugar.

The documentation also included pictures.

There are photos of droppings in the kitchen and classrooms, traps officials placed around the school and images of holes in the ceilings and walls. Officials believe the rodents crawled into the building gaps. There was also a photo of a rodent in the copier machine.

An email the school's principal Charles Penn sent to district leaders in October said, "Please be advised that we killed a mouse this morning in a kindergarten classroom and another in my office. Additionally, our conference room copier continued to jam."

The photos also included evidence of changes leaders instructed their staff to make to keep the rats out. There is a picture of a hole in the ceiling someone sealed.

District spokesman Keith Bromery told Byfield as of Nov. 23, the school's staff had not seen any signs of rodents since early November.

Source = cnn.com