rats come up from the sewers in this town center in Orne

See my news
Follow Le Perche

“I was sitting at my desk in the middle of the day and I could hear rats nibbling on the false ceiling. The tiles were moving. I would scare them away with a broom, otherwise they would fall on my desk. »

The scene seems crazy, but it goes well Mortagne-au-Perche (Orne). Rue des XV Fusillés, several businesses are affected by rat problems. Since October, these pests have emerged from the pipes and proliferated.

“It smelled of death everywhere in our house, it was horrible,” says a professional who works in the street. The latter is obliged to call on a rodent exterminator, who continues to treat the problem, this Thursday November 28, 2024.

They were running along the walls

David Mallet, manager of the Orne Nuisibles company, is categorical: “There is a real rat problem in the town, but also in the surrounding area. » Difficult for him to identify the origin of the problem. “Maybe the climate. It has rained so much lately that the rats wanted to get warm and are coming into the houses and buildings. »

In any case, the CdC services carried out cleanings of the sanitation network on November 18 and 25, 2024. That is to say, high pressure water is injected into the networks to clean the pipes.

Obviously, the rats are coming back up at the moment, that's normal.

But the problem seems to be older. “Several residents tell us that they see rats in the street at night,” says a shopkeeper. Traces of urine, dead rats and droppings were found in the false ceilings and cellars of several stores on the street. “We could hear Ratatouille and his family running along the walls. And they ended up going up the whole street,” says the professional. She paid more than 300 euros to pay for a rodent exterminator, and has to redo her false ceiling.

Gel packets

For professional David Mallet, it takes several weeks to resolve such a problem in a town like Mortagne-au-Perche.

Sewer cleaning cannot solve the rat problem. The phenomenon must be addressed. What I often recommend is installing boxes, secure baits. The rat eats a product, a gel, attached to an iron bar. He won't be able to carry it, so he nibbles on it, and it's the product that will kill him.

He himself has intervened with several traders on the street over the past two months. The specialist also points to composters which are increasingly developing in urban areas. “If you have composters at home, put them as far away from houses as possible,” he advises.

In terms of volume, interventions for rat problems have “tripled or quadrupled in recent years”, according to him. Several communities are now calling on him.

The services of the CDC, competent on the subject of sanitation, deposited poisons in the pipes this Thursday November 28, 2024. The problem should therefore be resolved. “But we really need to monitor the phenomenon. A rat can produce a litter of 8 to 10 babies every 23 days. It can go very quickly. », warns David Mallet.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.