Sam Hughes has a rat problem, and it could spread across Tucson

A growing infestation of rodents emanating from the Sam Hughes neighborhood is concerning local pest control experts who say it’s only “a matter of time” before what they’ve identified as roof rats spread beyond midtown Tucson.

City Council Member Steve Kozachik, whose Ward 6 constituency covers Sam Hughes, said he’s received calls about the rodent issue for about a month and has been working with neighbors to come up with solutions. Kozachik said it’s not clear if the rodents are the common desert pack rats or roof rats, but local pest control workers say they’re seeing the latter and larger species in people’s homes.

There’s been evidence of roof rat activity in the Sam Hughes area for the past year, and the invasive species’ growth is “getting progressively worse,” said Joshua King, a senior account manager with pest control company Truly Nolen.

While pack rats are a well-known desert animal that can occasionally find their way into homes, roof rats are “designed to climb around and live with you,” King said.

Roof rats were first documented in Phoenix in 2001, according to the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and experts have documented their expansion to southern Arizona. The rats breed frequently and have been implicated in the transmission of several diseases to humans.

“(Roof rats) spread very gradually throughout the Phoenix metro area over about two decades, and then all of a sudden, there were other metropolitan areas in the state where they started showing up: Tucson, Yuma and other areas as well around in Arizona,” said Dawn Gouge, an entomologist and integrated pest management specialist.

Gouge believes the rats have been “around in Tucson for quite some time,” but could be emerging in larger numbers this summer as they find ways into homes to escape the heat.

“Roof rats are going to want to be right where you are, they’re going to want to escape from the temperatures,” she said. “They’re going to do everything they can to get in behind some insulation, and they are going to be desperate, even more desperate for AC than we are at those temperatures.”

According to King, that’s exactly what’s happening. He reports finding the rats in kitchen sinks and evidence of their presence through gnawed fruit and dry goods in pantries. The rodents are also attracted to the bird seeds and citrus plants in many of Tucson’s backyards.

Quinn Huber-Heidorn, a wildlife control operator with Animal Experts, said he’s also seeing an uptick in roof rat activity in Sam Hughes, including in one home where nearly a dozen rats poured in from a broken pipe in a basement crawlspace.

“If they find a way, they’ll go in. Especially with a sewer system, they’re just looking for air movement,” he said.

King and Huber-Heidorn agree the rats likely originated from Phoenix, and just like the metropolitan hub has seen in past years, they believe the rodents will also spread across Tucson.

“I’m operating under the general assumption with a couple of other pest professionals in the area that this is a (rat) population from Phoenix that has set up shop here somewhere in the midtown area and has been emanating from that focal point since then,” King said. “This is going to be city-wide here shortly. It may take a couple of years to get to the opposite side of town. But it is going to be a permanent fixture.”

Neighborhood meeting

The Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association is trying to alert residents of the issue while working with Kozachik to come up with solutions. The council member will host a meeting on Tuesday, July 11, to talk to residents about the issue and possible solutions.

Kozachik said he reached out to his local government resources for help, but the county health department told him there’s no government-related protocol for pest control on private property. Pima Animal Care Center, or PACC, has stepped in to provide guidance, however.

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Using any kind of poison or rodenticides is not an option due to the disruption they cause to the ecosystem by harming animals that feed on the rodents. Kozachik is floating other solutions under PACC’s guidance, such as introducing feral cats or barn owls to the neighborhood.

PACC could provide sterile neighborhood cats to feed on the rodents, but Kozachik has already received negative feedback over worries the cats would kill the beloved neighborhood birds or be consumed by coyotes. It would also take a while for the feral animals to acclimate to a new place.

The more popular idea is to introduce barn owls to the area, a process that would take authorization from the Arizona Game and Fish Department but could put a dent in the rat population as one family of barn owls can eat about 1,000 rodents a year, according to PACC.

“These are just options that people can explore on their own. We will probably come away from that (July 11) meeting with a consensus among the neighbors, my expectation is that we’ll have a consensus among the neighbors to try some barn owls and see if it works,” Kozachik said.

Although she hasn’t yet seen the midtown rodents herself, Gouge believes owls could make a “dent” in the population, but said, “I would be really, really surprised to see an adult roof rat go down your average size barn owl.”

King from Truly Nolen said his treatment plan for roof rats includes mechanical trapping with snap traps that kills rats and requires careful disposal afterward. He said it’s also important to take preventive measures to rodent-proof a home by sealing off any holes or potential access areas.

But before trying any do-it-yourself tactics, King recommends “an evaluation by some pest professional that has a pest control license,” as experts have the tools and knowledge to catch evidence of rodent activity and identify preventative measures.

It’s also recommended homeowners consistently turn over outdoor compost piles and clear debris rats can nest in.

But while the homeowners in the Sam Hughes Neighborhood grapple with solutions to the rodent problem, many homes in the area are rentals or sit vacant when snowbirds leave for the summer.

King said some renters live in homes with roof vents that aren’t screened off, and while “that’s not the fault of the tenant … the tenant’s now not speaking up, because they don’t want to be responsible for any bills associated with having critters in the house.”

By the time barn owls are released, or another rodent-deterring program launches, “I foresee this problem getting much too large to control at that point before everybody is savvy to what’s going on,” King said.

But Kozachik’s getting experts together to adequately inform residents about the issue, and hopefully, to devise an adequate way to manage it.

“Sam Hughes is where the problem has really begun, that’s the reason I’m holding a multi-neighborhood meeting because the problem will expand and grow. And it’s not like the rats or mice know the ward boundaries,” he said.