BOISE, Idaho — Treasure Valley residents packed a Boise City Council town hall Tuesday night to voice concerns over the region's growing rat problem, as city leaders, public health officials and pest experts discussed what can be done—and who should ultimately be responsible for addressing it.
The meeting, hosted by Boise City Council members Luci Willits and Colin Nash, brought together neighbors from across the Treasure Valley with representatives from the Ada County Weed, Pest and Mosquito Abatement District and Central District Health.
WATCH | Boise leaders discuss solutions for growing Treasure Valley rat problem
For West Boise neighbor Steve Rasulo, the issue isn't new.
"It's been a year since we first saw them," Rasulo said. "My wife sees the tail of a rat going through the fence into the next door neighbor's yard, and then the circus began. Rats started running around through our yard, under our deck, through our vegetable garden and such."
Rasulo said he and his neighbors quickly began looking for ways to reduce the number of rats without using poison.
He says sealing small openings around the home, installing barriers around crawl spaces, placing snap traps and cleaning up debris have made his property less attractive to rodents.
"In the last year we know of at least 80-plus rats, four of us, four neighbors, have caught," Rasulo said.
His neighborhood also installed an owl box, and trail camera footage has captured the screech owls living there catching about a dozen additional rats.
Pest district says its hands are tied
During Tuesday's meeting, officials with the Ada County Weed, Pest and Mosquito Abatement District said they receive several rat-related calls every week.
However, because rats are not currently under the district's legal authority, officials said they do not have the funding or authority to actively manage the growing population.
Officials described the current response as fragmented, with multiple agencies involved but no single organization responsible for leading a regional effort.
Central District Health also told neighbors it has not seen evidence of an increase in rat-related disease in Ada County.
As Idaho News 6 previously reported, concerns over rats reached the Idaho Legislature earlier this year, where lawmakers discussed declaring rats a public nuisance. However, the proposal did not move forward.
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Now, leaders from Boise, Meridian and other Treasure Valley communities are urging Ada County commissioners to consider expanding the pest district's authority. Boise City Council members also said they're exploring whether updates to city code or code enforcement could help reduce conditions that attract rodents.
"Ideally it would be nice if neighbors would clean their yards up, reduce the potential for the rats in their own yards, but if that doesn't happen, maybe code enforcement could then get involved and start looking at the problems within the neighborhoods and reduce those areas that rats are going to habitate in," Rasulo said.
Community wants better tracking
Another topic that generated discussion Tuesday night was the need for better tracking of rat sightings across the Treasure Valley.
Several neighbors expressed interest in creating a centralized database where residents can report rat activity. While Ada County does not currently operate a public rat-tracking system, we recently reported on a Boise woman who created a community map allowing neighbors to document sightings and identify potential hotspots.
Boise leaders said Tuesday's meeting was one of the most attended town halls they've hosted and expect to continue the conversation as communities across the Treasure Valley look for long-term solutions to the growing rat problem.
