MERIDIAN, Idaho — A Meridian homeowner recounted the moment he first saw the remainders of a large rat his cat left in his front yard.
"These teeth are like straight out of a horror movie. It was just the head of the rat," Aaron Haws said.
WATCH what experts say neighbors can do to mitigate rats on their properties
Haws was one of several homeowners I spoke to who say they've seen an increase of these rodents in their neighborhoods and discussed the tools they're using to keep their homes rat free.
Haws lives in Meridian with his family and their pet cat, who keeps bringing them dead rats.
"I'm like, oh my gosh, I think that's a rat head. And so I just ran and saying to my wife and she's like, that is crazy. And you know, my kids are like, what?" Haws told me.
And he's not the only Meridian resident reporting these sightings.
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Chris Hoskins lives near W Pine Ave and N Black Cat Road. He says his cats bring rats home to his yard.
"They bring them to the door as gifts. Thankfully they don't bring them inside," Chris Hoskins said.
Hoskins says most of the rats his cats catch are about a foot long.
"That is my foot, and you could tell if my foot was turned sideways," Hoskins said, showing a photo on his phone.
"Yeah, see how long that tail is. The tail is about as long as my foot," Hoskins said.
Pest control expert Josef Bendele said all the ongoing construction across the valley displaces rodents and pushes them into residential neighborhoods.
"As soon as they started tearing stuff up, moving stuff around, it just swarmed," Bendele explained.
Bendele says his company has trapped these rats in every city in the Treasure Valley and believes they may have arrived through moving trucks from other areas. Now, colder weather is pushing them to find shelter and warmth, and unkempt homes and yards can be the perfect spot for these rodents to nest.
Experts say leaving leaves and pet food outside can attract rodents to your yard.
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Bendele says trimming back trees, bushes and gardens, and overall fall maintenance can help keep rats away.
"If you have a tomato garden, I would say if you haven't pulled it yet, just pull it," Bendele advised.
While cats may not rank very high on the expert's mitigation efforts, they say rat traps, keeping a clean yard, and taking preventative measures early can help.
Meridian officials ask neighbors to report sightings to https://invasivespecies.idaho.gov/rats.
Neighbors can also report sightings and see hot-spots on this interactive map: https://tvpiedpiper.com/public-map/.
