Baltimore City Ratted Out for County Problem

DARRELL HAMMERBACKER September 19, 2012 at 11:05 pm

The county sent people around to put poison down,but I think they just faked it or the rats are immune to it.And then again they are Baltimore Rats

Jenny azadi September 19, 2012 at 11:05 pm

Really? The rats in Baltimore city run around like squirrells. I have seen them as big as house cats. Baltimore was rated not just for the rats, but the trash and burnedout buildings. Quit wining and clean up!

Joe September 19, 2012 at 11:20 pm

It may be because of the success of the efforts of Baltimore city on that side of town. Sending them scurrying further out to survive in new spreads. Spray one row house for cockroaches and three more get infested.

Joe September 19, 2012 at 11:21 pm

Damn Norway!

Dundalk Girl September 20, 2012 at 02:10 am

We never had rats like this when the trash was picked up twice per week. Dundalk should have daily trash pick-up using large community bins with a sealed lid just like Ocean City does. Violates should be fined for non-compliance.
Anyway, Rats are just like adult children that won't move out, if you feed them and give them a dry place to sleep, they will never leave!

Sean Tully September 20, 2012 at 03:19 am

Baltimore City has a horrible rat problem and I don't need any magazine to comfirm that for me.

PerryHallParent September 20, 2012 at 10:44 am

When we came out of our Dundalk home and I had to pull my car forward so my child wouldn't have to step over a dead rat to get into our vehicle, that's when I knew it was time to leave. I always kept my trash covered and my lawn mowed, but that didn't seem to matter. I started noticing them running around the perimeters of homes even while standing outside talking to a neighbor. I feel that with Dundalk being so close to the city, the problem is just spreading out naturally. The city is a disgusting pit of filth and it shows in the neighborhoods as you drive by and Dundalk is no exception. People need to clean up their yards and homes and stop living like animals or you'll attract the same.

ArcAngel September 20, 2012 at 12:51 pm

Some people I know in Berkshire just got $250 tickets for not having trash cans. There needs to be more of this. Maybe then the morons will get the message.

M. Sullivan September 20, 2012 at 01:21 pm

Rats are just another example of the evils creeping out of that cesspool, Baltimore City, into the counties. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing them on the Light Rail. They won't pay for their tickets either. LOL!

Tim September 20, 2012 at 01:30 pm

Oh man, I would LOVE for Baltimore County to come ticket all of these slackers on my block who don't have trash cans.
Another one of those common sense consideration things that the majority of people seem to fail at considering.

Charlotte September 20, 2012 at 01:36 pm

Rats will stay where they are being fed. Where are the people who are supposed to be giving out citations. Look around your neighbors yards and you will see why you have rats. Lids not on trash cans, plastic bags of trash laying on the ground Etc. call the enforcement code on your neighbors who are creating this problem don't sit around and do nothing

J. Addis September 20, 2012 at 05:46 pm

I live in West Inverness. I was out back when the " Exterminator" came. NO inspection was done. He stood at the gate and asked if i had any holes. At least last year, we saw dead rats after the inspection. This year, nothing. Baltimore County picked lowest bidder. What a joke. So on weekends, I stick hotdogs on screws and put them in the ground. I then shoot the rodents with a pellet gun. Sure, against the law, but i have killed 47 rats this summer alone! I wonder how many the "Exterminator" has killed with his magic powder. Just a thought, has anyone checked his powder?

J. Addis September 20, 2012 at 05:51 pm

Charlotte,
You are right in theroy! I have called so many times on my neighbors, I have given up. In the one yard on the end, we watch the rosents tunneling out the sand through blocks. Called, no one came. Next to me, it took a year to get a collasped shed removed that had carpet and matteress in it. Still the rats remain. Hello Baltimore County, are you reading or listening?

sherry K September 20, 2012 at 05:57 pm

It isnt just the city who has rats they are all over. We have lids on our trash cans and we live in a pretty clean area but they just wont leave.I sit on the front porch at night and watch them run through the yards. We even had a caompany come out once a month and spray the yard and put out traps but they are still there. It sucks because i am afraid one will get my little dog since they are as big as my dog.

Charlotte Gunther September 20, 2012 at 07:45 pm

It is disgusting, people in my block have cleaned up with the exception of one, no one lives there but is a breeding ground. As soon as dusk arrives they run across my back yard. I am afraid to go in yard after dark. I pour bleach in my trash can, they chew right through the plastic cans.

Mike Fisher September 20, 2012 at 08:46 pm

I don't use trash cans because the garbage men just end up throwing them all over the place. Lids thrown on the sidewalk and trashcans sometimes rolling into the middle of the street or wherever. Then again, we don't have rat problems here. Baltimore city is a dump and it goes much further than just rats. It's a dump, well, most of it anyway.

Mike Fisher September 20, 2012 at 08:58 pm

... or, instead of putting the trashcans on the grass near the mailbox for example, they'll put them right in the middle of the entrance to the driveway so when people come home from work, they have to get out of their car and move them just to pull into their own driveway. I mean, I've seen them do this stuff. They don't "sit" the cans back on your property, they sort of toss them and they fall over and roll around or there's lids in the driveway blocking entrance to the cars of the people who live there who are coming home from work.
Maybe if garbage men didn't do this stuff on a routine basis, it wouldn't be a problem. If rats are such a problem in the city, I'm sure it goes beyond just the trash bags laying around. Baltimore city is full of abandoned houses and buildings. At least, they look that way. Baltimore city will just continue to fall apart. There's no interest in fixing it up except in areas that already look decent. The rest of the city is left to rot.

Caryn September 20, 2012 at 09:29 pm

Friends/neighbors who live down the street from us off Hickoryhurst live next to a house that's in limbo (owners started renting it and then not paying the mortgage with the rent so it went into foreclosure, but its not bank owned yet). They started seeing rats and called the county but they wouldn't do anything since it was unclear who owned the property. So, they took matters onto their own hands and laid rat poison out themselves. Problem solved.

Mike Fisher September 20, 2012 at 09:44 pm

Ironically, rat poison's primary ingredient is sodium fluoride. Yeah, the same stuff people brush their teeth with and a variant of hydrofluorocicilic acid, which is added to drinking water. Fluoride is also used to kill cockroaches. Kind of off topic, I guess. I've never seen a rat around the SCD area. I can't remember the last time I saw a rat except on TV. I had one single mouse in my house one time and no idea where it came from, but my cat killed it. First time I'd ever seen a mouse in my house. It most likely came up through the sub pump, which needed replacing. I walk down hickoryhurst and parkfalls all the time though usually at night because, well I'm a night person. I see quite a bit of frogs in some places and some rabbits, but never seen a rat.

me September 21, 2012 at 12:31 am

The city puts out cans for trash but does not empty them on any kind of schedule. Look at Dundalk Ave. always a mess. Give jobs to people that want to work and care, not to people who spend all day trying to find ways to get out of work. I heard a guy the other day bragging that he worked for a company for 35 years and did not do much of anything. And he said they could not make him do anything. He was proud of this.

VWK September 21, 2012 at 02:02 pm

We've had some bad rat problems in Perry Hall in the past. The guy who came out for the inspection handed out violation notices to people who had wood piles laying directly on the ground (they need to be elevated), people who hadn't cleaned up after their dog, and people with bird feeders.

Mike Fisher September 21, 2012 at 09:58 pm

I see more bats around here than I do rats. Maybe the rats have wings now? Nah, as ugly as rats are, bats are hideous looking, but I see them all the time when I go for walks around the neighborhood at night. Not incredibly large amounts of them, but they're around for sure.

PerryHallParent September 21, 2012 at 10:19 pm

VWK, thanks for pointing out an interesting point about bird feeders. While I don't have any, I've considered them because I'd considered wanting to attract birds to my property, but I will research the issue now. I'm in the process of removing a few bird baths that had to be freshened daily due to the mosquito issues, but I never thought of bird feeders.