‘Exploding’ rat population worries residents

Toronto Community Housing has said it has an exterminator dealing with the rat infestation at a garbage enclosure at the back of its building on Flemington Road

Guess who’s coming to dinner? Rats — lots of them — to feast on scraps that don’t make it into the bin at a garbage enclosure.

It likely comes as no surprise to many readers that Toronto was in 2021 considered the rattiest city in Ontario, as measured by Orkin, a major pest control company that totals the number of calls it gets to exterminate rodents.

By any estimate, the number of rats in urban areas has grown by leaps and bounds. One online account says Toronto’s rat population has doubled in the past 10 years, while others blame their expansion into residential areas on the closure of restaurants due to COVID-19.

Less food scraps means less to eat for rats, sending them further afield, including a garbage enclosure at the back of a Toronto Community Housing Corporation building on Flemington Road.

Lorna Robinson, who lives on nearby Replin Road, emailed to say “there are a ton of rats in my neighbourhood, and when I called 311, I was told that the city doesn’t control rats.

“The concern is that the population seems to be exploding,” particularly around an enclosure that contains a garbage bin at the rear of one of the TCHC buildings on Flemington, she said, adding there are “30-40 rat holes dug all around it.”

Her emails included startling photos of dozens of holes about the size of tennis balls, in a grassy area on two sides of the enclosure.

“I am also now seeing rats in my backyard during the day and elsewhere in the neighbourhood,” she said, adding that similar holes have recently been found at a nearby schoolyard and also near the Lawrence Heights Community Centre building, which is no more than 50 metres away from the enclosure.

Robinson said she recently spoke to an employee at the community centre, who told her he was horrified to see many rats scurrying out from under the garbage bin.

I went there last week and saw the same holes as depicted in Robinson’s photos, but no rats emerged from them to greet me.

STATUS I sent a note to TCHC and got a reply from spokesperson Bruce Malloch that said they were already taking steps to deal it. “We have an active rodent control plan in Lawrence Heights, as required under the city bylaw.”

He noted that demolition of old buildings and construction of new ones in the immediate area has caused a migration of rats, some of which have burrowed in around the enclosure. “We have had an active pest management plan in place at Flemington Road, and in response to the recent infestation we have increased monitoring and cleaning at the site and engaged a vendor to develop a rodent control plan.”

It just so happened that the exterminator was scheduled to be there on the very same day last week that I got in touch with Malloch, “to apply rodent control measures,” he said, adding that regular monitoring and applications of rat control products will continue.

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