San Diego and Orange County is on the Verge of a Rat Apocalypse

San Diego and Orange County is on the Verge of a Rat Apocalypse Warmer weather is causing a rat surge! Ryan Wheeler is the rat master at Wheeler’s Pest Control. He is “one of the San Diego’s leading experts on rats.” Call him what you want; he is mostly alarmed. “I travel all over the San Diego and Orange County and the amount of complaints and feedback and questions I hear right now are all the same, ‘We’ve never seen rats here like this before,” he said. “They’re all expressing the same concern: The rat problem is worse than ever.” Most counties know rat problems are increasing. Orange County for instance, had even called a Grand Jury investigation about the rat problems in Orange County. Countless plans to control longstanding rat problems in which those disease-ridden critters are growing in numbers and growing to the size of human infants have been stopped. In days gone by, the federal grants, helped fund rat control projects. Those grants have all been stopped and the problem has been laid on cash strapped counties and cities. What we don’t know is how this all will end. All cities are seeing an increase in rat sightings and rat complaints. Complaints are coming in at 9% to 60% increase this year so far. It’s no surprise that rats thrive in cities, where humans provide an abundance of food, water and shelter. But most experts agree that the weather is playing a greater role in these recent increases. Extreme summer heat and this past winter’s mild temperatures have created rat utopias. The reason the rats are so bad now, everyone believes, is because of the warmer winters. Yes, global warming is coming into play now Rat pro Ryan Wheeler agrees. “Breeding slows down during the colder months,” he said. But with shorter, warmer winters becoming more common in Southern California, rats are experiencing a baby boom. One more litter per year makes a big difference where a population boom is not only a nuisance, but a public health and economic crisis. Two rats in a normal environment can turn into 482 million rats over a period of just three years. Rats caused hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of economic damage in 2000 worldwide. We are not talking about just food stuffs, but they eat away at buildings and other infrastructure. Can you imagine how much they’re costing now? What’s just as important, every new litter increases the risk of a rodent-borne disease. Several years ago, New York City Vector Control found 18 new diseases carried by rats they trapped and tested. That’s on top of the know diseases they carry already. Clearly, the coming rat apocalypse is no longer a city or county problem. It is threatening the health of millions of people across the country, costing billions of dollars, and is being fueled by global climate change. And yet cities and counties are largely dealing with their rodent crises on their own. In years past, the federal government helped with the countries rats problems. From 1969 to 1982, the Center for Disease Control awarded cities grants under what was known as the Urban Rat Control program, championed by then-President Lyndon Johnson. The program was servicing almost 70 cities with an annual budget of $13 million, which was matched by state and local governments. The program was widely considered successful. Quoting the CDC, the Associated Press article about the program said, “As a result of the efforts, 7.7 million people now live in rat-free, environmentally improved neighborhoods.” But President Ronald Reagan eliminated the program, saying the rat problem should be dealt with by individual states. Rat-plagued cities are now left to their own devices. And they’re not exactly doing a great job.