Rats? (Pasadena, San Fernando: sale, apartment complexes, leasing)

[Tex?Il?]

I'm really not freaked out about them. Because there is no way for them to come into my new apartment.

But there are a few creeping around in my apartment complexes beautiful courtyard. It really is a super clean looking apartment.

Do you think rats might simply be more visible in LAs perfect climate, rather than northeast/midwest cities where they have to take cover in the crevices.

I saw one creep around the bushes along one small courtyard, and one was crawling and jumping around a palm tree.

The leasing office knows about them, and has an exterminator come.

Are rats a problem in parts of LA even in clean looking areas, because of the nice weather?

In Chicago/midwest I almost never saw them, even though I knew they were around.

[Tex?Il?]

I looked it up.

I guess I am referring to roof rats, or black rats. As opposed to norway rats or brown rats.

Apparently although they are a serious and dangerous pest (in terms of spreading disease) they are not as aggressive as the brown rats, and are more limited to warmer climates. Thats probably why I didn't see as many rats back in the midwest because there are only brown/norway rats and they were more subterranean.

Interesting. Still, stories?

[Vary]

They are often more visible, even in nice clean areas, if there's plenty of vegetation. I've seen them in open places like the little grass islands in the grocery parking lot. I had one on my back patio who stood there and looked right through the window at me. Though he ran pretty fast when I used my son's AirSoft gun to pelt hit little butt with pellets until he leaped the fence and fled the yard.

[Tex?Il?]

I also wonder if there is also a lack of competition with squirrels in the LA area.

In eastern cities, any patch of park and yard with trees has its residents squirrels. I think in the LA area, you have to go up into the mountains.

So you don't rodent competition. Maybe.

[Nightscape]

Interesting. I've never seen a rat in weho the past 3 years I've been here, but I do see squirrels all the time.
And growing up in OC I saw squirrels and possums pretty much everyday but don't remember seeing rats.

[SalParadise]

I grew up in So. Calif. and have lived all over LA County (houses and apartments). Pasadena, Los Feliz, Downtown LA, San Fernando Valley, Hancock Park, etc. The only time I've ever seen a rat was in downtown LA in an alley. And I lived there for 2 years in the mid-2000's and this only happened a few times.

[Fontucky]

Growing up in the citrus orchards of South OC, I saw enough roof rats to last me the rest of my life. For sport and depredation purposes, I'd sit on the roof of the two story barn and shoot them with .22 dust shot as they scampered across the roof of the house.

[nslander]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

I also wonder if there is also a lack of competition with squirrels in the LA area.

In eastern cities, any patch of park and yard with trees has its residents squirrels. I think in the LA area, you have to go up into the mountains.

So you don't rodent competition. Maybe.

Not so many rodents for competition, but we've marsupials. Roving gangs of opossums prowl our streets and eat young rats.

You need to go the County Vermin Abatement Unit the and get a Opossum Opermit. You are allowed three per year, no open carry. Of course, you can always do what we did in high school and stuff a few extras into the pouch of the biggest one. Home Depot usually has a sale on them starting the opening of rat season, the second Saturday in February. Oddly, we had no rat problem until the Raiders moved here.

Anyway...I've only seen 4 rats in all my years here. I saw two on my last trip to Chicago, and at first I thought they were very agile beagles. I guess you just lucked out.

[HarryKerry]

The reason they are more "visible" in LA has to do with the fact that we have more vegetation and "housing" for them OUTSIDE your home, this includes bugs. It other parts of the country, especially Chicago (I lived there) and New York that have virtually no places form them in the neighborhoods except INSIDE your home. Please, trash day in Manhattan neighborhoods is a rats feast and heaven. Also, the rats, and bugs, are especially a bigger problem in other cites because they travel from place to place using the utility and heat (for steam) and other tunnels and the fact that a lot of housing/buildings on those cities are right next to each other with absolutely NO space in-between and not nearly the plant life or vegetation that exists between many of our apartment buildings/housing.

Rats will exploit any opening and that includes any means to get into your home, even here. They are curious by nature, but if they can't find food, they will move on. I know this from personal experience. Rats are ubiquitous on this planet, but our rat problem is not even close to other cities' problems. At least here, they can run and frolic and feed in and on those palms trees (a favorite of rats) and other plant life and bugs they find in there as well, not to mention the many places for them to live and feed in the hills and small buffers of vegetation even in dense parts of the city that just don't exist in other major cities of the world. It is when they are in the concrete jungle with no places to hide and desperately seek warmth from the harsh winters that they will find a way into your home, not as likely here as are weather isn't as extreme.

However, while rats here may feed on our fruit trees in the back yard, if one keeps the house sealed and isn't careless with open doors, especially at night, it is really very rare to find rats desperate to get into your home here. It's like at my aunt's home. Oh, yeah, at night there is some rat activity because of the hills and fruit trees she has, but those rats have food to eat and places to live OUTSIDE that don't require them to have to escape anything nor driven by hunger to get in the house. You can have rats in your house, as in UNDER your house and NOT know it here because the food and coverage is so good OUTSIDE, they just go under your house during the day and aren't as active nor as desperate to find food in YOUR house.

Yes, anyone here can get a serious rat problem, but it really is worse in other cities. Your landlord is good to get an exterminator, but getting rid of the foliage that rats like to use as cover is 85% of the problem. You won't see them hardly at all provided the tenants have good practices. But poison feeders and traps would still be wise. Even better, get a few cats. Those felines can be quite effective, and cheaper, too.

[Curmudgeon]

Protein!