NARROWS, Va. –
Joe McCroskey has lived in the Town of Narrows for years and he said one of his properties has been overrun with rats.
“There’s a hole,” said McCroskey, “There’s a hole behind you. Here’s where the rats were on top of the back of the couch.”
For weeks he has been trying to get rid of the rodents, but he said he can’t get it under control. His exterminator told him the problem stems from the town’s piping.
“I am a little nervous on pulling these I ain’t going to lie,” said McCroskey as he opened up cabinets.
Apparently, he’s not alone dealing with this problem. On the other side of town, another family said they are having the exact same issues.
“The main spot that I have noticed and I left the traps there cause they were actually set, they had actually ripped the wallpaper and everything off,” said Dustin Blankenship. “I dropped a wrench and noticed [this hole]. Yeah, that wasn’t there three months ago.”
To help solve the issue, McCroskey--along with other people dealing with rat problems--met with town leaders on his property to come up with a plan.
“If we can find out where they are coming from then that’s where we can make progress,” McCroskey said.
After the meeting, I talked to Narrows town manager Terry Nicholson.
“I do understand their frustrations with the problem that we’ve got and, like I said, we are looking for ways to educate everybody to prevent this kind of issue from happening,” Nicholson said.
He said they don’t know where the population boom came from, and poisoning the rats near water supplies can be difficult
“We don’t want to be poisoning kids, pets, our sewer system,” said Nicholson. “Our sewer system works on the biological concept so we can’t be poisoning that either”
I also talked to Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension wildlife specialist Jim Parkhurst. He said with this type of issue, it’ll take work from everyone.
McCroskey and the other homeowners said they’re willing to do what’s necessary to solve the issue.