BOISE BENCH, Idaho — Rats are eating pumpkins and just about everything in Boise Bench gardens, pushing neighbors to rethink their fall traditions and move their seasonal decor indoors.
Why Boise Bench neighbors are rethinking their Halloween decor this year — and how to keep yours off the menu for local rats:
Kayla Groat usually puts pumpkins on her porch for Halloween. This year, she is trying to beat the rats by picking them green from her garden and letting them ripen inside.
After 16 years in her Boise Bench home, Groat said this is the first summer she has seen the rats.
"It's essentially a race between me and the rats: who gets to the produce first," Groat said. "I have sat awake at night just stressed out about the issue. To know that it's just being destroyed is really upsetting."
Keeping pumpkins off the porch means giving up part of her fall decorating routine, but it is her way of trying to keep the rats away from the house.
"Another thing that feels like the rats are invading into your life. It's a bummer," Groat said.
WATCH: Boise Bench neighbors have been pushing for action on the growing Treasure Valley rat problem:
Nearby, Pati King is also rethinking where her pumpkins will go. Painting and carving them is a tradition she shares with her grandkids.
"I won't be doing that this year," King said. "As you can see, we're doing fake Halloween decorations and fake pumpkins."
King is urging her neighbors to do the same.
"I'm hoping that we'll all make an effort, especially by not feeding them," King said. "I can hire a pest control company to come and remediate, but I know a lot of my neighbors can't."
Matt Schwartz, service manager at Vertex Pest Control, says pumpkins give rats both food and moisture, so he recommends displaying them inside, near a window.
"You can still decorate, you can still show everybody the cool artwork that the kids did," Schwartz said. "People can still see them, but the rats can't get to them."
Schwartz said clearing leaf piles and picking ripe produce can also help keep rats from finding food and shelter in your yard.
"Bales of straw you'll find out on people's front patios, that they'll use for decoration. With that straw, that's bedding material for their nests, so they'll take that or they'll even nest inside there," Schwartz said.
Schwartz also adds that home remedies, like rubbing cayenne pepper on the pumpkins, have not been proven to deter rats.
"There's a lot of wives' tales on what can be done," Schwartz said. "The biggest prevention is actually removing that source from them."
At a meeting last month, Ada County and city leaders identified tracking rat sightings as a first step to a solution, saying they need a clearer picture of the problem before deciding how to respond.
King appreciates that agencies are coming together.
“I don't think there's any remediation or eradication efforts right now, on a larger scale,” King said. “I think right now it's mostly about tracking.”
Groat, who attended the meeting, said she left discouraged.
“It really is a feeling of something that's outside of your control. You do everything you can to try to stop it, and it's upsetting,” Groat said.
Schwartz says if you are already regularly seeing rats and struggling to keep them under control, it is time to call a pest professional.
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