'It's widespread': Cape Breton Regional Municipality experiencing rat problem

Some unwanted visitors are causing concern in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Coun. Gordon MacDonald says he's been receiving weekly calls about rats in the neighbourhoods he represents.

“I receive lots of calls about rats and on a regular basis. I would dare say I get a call at least once a week regarding rodents in my district,” said MacDonald.

And it's not only North Sydney, N.S., that's seeing a growing number of the four legged critters.

Richard MacDonald, the owner of Cape Breton Pest Control, has been getting calls from across the municipality.

“It's wide spread. It's every town in CBRM, even in some rural areas. We've been getting calls the past couple of years, which going back to when I started 12 or 13 years ago, there were no calls in some of these areas for rats. There were mice of course,” said MacDonald.

MacDonald says there has been a dramatic increase of rat-related calls over the past couple of years, and it seems the problem is only getting worse.

“I think there are a lot of reasons, available food sources is a major one, whether it's green bins or food outside, and especially this time of year with apples on the ground, pumpkins outside,” he added.

Councillor MacDonald says he's not sure what, if anything, the municipality can do to help.

“I do have a plan to bring something to council and hopefully we can investigated and look at do we have options and what can we do or can we do anything,” he said

It's a tough job, even for the experts.

“We've got six guys going steady and I’d like to think we're putting a dent in the population, but we don't seem to be getting ahead of them. It's going to be an ongoing thing for a while I suspect,” said MacDonald.