Rat hotline encourages rodent reporting in Alberta

Alberta Agriculture has set up a toll-free number to report rats in an effort to keep the destructive rodents out of the province.

The toll-free number,310-RATS (7287), lets people report sightings of the pest.

The province prided itself for being rat-free for decades, butfaced unusual infestations in southeastern Alberta in 2012 and lastyear.

Norway rats are considered to be extremely destructive with thepotential to ruin crops and spread disease.

Rat inspector Bruce Hamblin says municipalities are responsiblefor eradicating the varmints, but people sometimes don't know where to call to report a sighting.

"We talked to people who couldn't find an easy number to call,"he said.

"Sometimes calls were going to fish and wildlife officers andsome of the other agencies before finally being directed to AlbertaAgriculture.

"The new 310-RATS phone line is just a more efficienttool to help ensure Alberta remains rat-free."

Alberta focuses its rat-control efforts within a29-kilometre-wide zone along the Saskatchewan boundary from thecentral Lloydminster area south to the U.S. border.

Municipalities along this corridor get special grants from theprovince to monitor the pests.

The province is so serious about preventing the rodents fromgetting established in Alberta that it is illegal to have any typesof pet rats.

Phil Merrill, Alberta Agriculture's provincial rat specialist,says there were 16 confirmed reports last year, including pet rats.

The yearly average is up to 10 single rat sightings and up tothree infestations, generally in the rat-control zone.

When rats are found they are killed.The province considers the larger infestations in 2012 and 2014at the Medicine Hat dump, which is just outside the rat-controlzone, to be unusual.

During the campaign last year to root out the pests at the dump,an 80-metre-long nest was found that took a team of workers and twoexcavators six hours to destroy.

Alberta Agriculture says Norway rats live near people or theirstructures. They can't survive in natural areas or survive winter infarm fields.

The rodents are not native to North America but were introducedalong the east coast in 1775 and spread slowly westward.