Southern California Has Dirty Little Secret- Rats! Orange County

Southern California Has Dirty Little Secret- Rats!
In most people’s mind, rats are thought of as being part of less affluent areas. But the truth is the most affluent area of Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside County and San Diego County are experiencing a significant increase in rat control problems.
CBS reported that Los Angeles City Hall was overrun by rats; the Los Angeles Times reports that the Los Angeles Police Department is releasing feral cats at stations throughout Los Angeles to control rat infestations.
The rat control problem in Orange County California has gotten so bad that a grand jury investigation was started. The Grand Jury held interviews with Orange County Vector Control, Orange County Fire Authority and the Orange County Public Faculties and Resources Department were complaints about rat problems were reviewed.
Information kept by OCVCD shows that calls for rat problems had increased over 300% in some of the most affluent areas of Orange County. These stats only show the total calls for each city and do not reflect the geographical size of the city or the population within the area of the city. Therefore, they distort the real problem each city is having. For example the city of Anaheim, which is older and has a population density much higher than Anaheim Hills, had 3,252 calls into OCVCD for problems with rats compared to Anaheim Hills which had 3,618. A much smaller community like Laguna Niguel had 6,146, the highest number of calls in Orange County, in comparison to a much bigger neighbor Irvine, which had 4,042 rat control problems called in to Orange County Vector Control.
Here is a list of Orange County Cities and the average yearly rat control problems called into OCVCD over a 7 years period.