Berwick’s Chris and Maria Grimsey want Casey Council to help rid their home of rats.
By Rebecca Fraser
RATS have overrun a Berwick house with its owners struggling to control the rodents.
Maria and Chris Grimsey have battled the infestation for the past 18 months, spending hundreds of dollars trying to rid their home of the pesky pests.
The couple are now at their wits’ end. After unsuccessfully trying countless rat poisons, traps and electronic devices to remove the rodents, they have called on Casey Council for help.
The Melville Park Drive residents said other nearby homes had also had similar rodent problems with residents spotting rats on their front lawns and hearing them in their wall cavities.
Mrs Grimsey said they had been catching a few rats each fortnight and her husband and adult daughter were often forced to climb up into the roofs to remove the dead rats once they began to smell.
She said the pair had to wear gloves, masks and overalls each time they went into the ceiling and had to sift through pink roof batts to unearth the dead rats.
The couple has also tried mothballs to deter the pests and covered their down pipes with protective mesh, but neither of these measures have worked.
Even Bromakil, a potent rat poison, has not killed off the unwanted visitors.
When the Grimseys phoned Casey Council for help, they were advised to use an even stronger poison.
However, the pair were reluctant to do so as they feared it might harm their two young grandchildren, who currently live with them, or other animals in the area, including their own dogs.
The couple built their home seven years ago and said they thought the high level of construction in the area might have contributed to the rat issue.
“There has been a lot of ground dug up and a lot of development so that might be causing the problem,” Mrs Grimsey said.
“There must be something in the area and we are at our wits’ end and sick of the smell and noise.
“It is a mystery. We are not dirty people, our gardens are always mowed and everything is clean. We cannot understand why they keep visiting,” she said.
Mrs Grimsey said they wanted the council to come out and help find the cause of the problem.
“It is partly their responsibility as it must be something in the environment causing it,” she said.
Casey acting manager community safety Caroline Bell said while council did not pay for pest control on private property they could send out an environmental health officer to help determine the source of the problem.
Ms Bell said council had received calls from residents with pest control queries and most callers lived near housing developments.
“Churning up of land must disturb rats and mice,” Ms Bell said.
“If the residents get in contact with us we can come out and see if we can find what might be causing this and help provide some alternatives,” she said.
