East-end Ottawa family dealing with massive rat infestation
Residents in Ottawa’s Elmridge Gardens complex are dealing with a rat infestation that just won’t go away. Now, after doing everything they can to try to fix the issue, they are pleading with the city to step in and help.
Kylia White and her husband Kelly O’Neill have never seen a spring like this in 25 years.
"It's just been a month of, I want to say, hell," says White.
- Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
Over the past couple of months, dozens of rats have taken over their property, destroying everything in sight.
"Thousands of dollars of property is being destroyed, like thousands," says White.
Her $5,000 hot tub is now filled with holes where rats tunnelled through it. Her entire deck had to be dismantled and is now ready for the junkyard. Their vehicle’s engine is crawling with rats at all hours of the day.
"When I start it, they start dropping out. I'm running them over every time I move my car," says O’Neill.
"When I opened up the hood of my husband's vehicle, I noticed that they jumped out of there," adds White.
Monday was no different. As they opened the hood, a rat was sitting right on the engine block then ran under the vehicle.
White says she has tried multiple times to contact bylaw for help, with little to no luck.
"Children are here, animals are here. It's a health issue. It's a safety issue," White says.
The city said in a statement to CTV News that it is investigating the rat problem at this address.
"I think we actually have to have a rat hotline essentially, that's how bad it's become and it's only getting worse," said Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney. "And that's not just because of LRT. It's because of building construction in general. We’re building faster and taller than ever before and my ward is feeling it."
The couple says they are seeing about 20-30 rats per night scurry across their property, multiplying faster than anyone can keep up.
"You know, I don't know what else to do. I've done everything I could possibly do. At my own expense," says White.
CTV News tried contacting the management team in charge of these apartments, but did not receive a response.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Helicopter carrying Iran's president suffers a 'hard landing,' state TV says without further details
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a "hard landing" on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
What we've learned so far in the Trump hush money trial and what to watch for as it wraps up
Testimony in the hush money trial of Donald Trump is set to conclude in the coming days, putting the landmark case on track for jury deliberations that will determine whether it ends in a mistrial, an acquittal — or the first-ever felony conviction of a former American president.
Walmart, Costco refusing to sign grocery code of conduct 'untenable': industry minister
Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says it's 'untenable' for 'smaller players' like Walmart and Costco to delay signing on to the government- and industry-led grocery code of conduct, now that industry giant Loblaw has agreed to do so.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
Slovak prime minister's condition remains serious but prognosis positive after assassination bid
Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, remained in serious condition on Sunday but has been given a positive prognosis four days after he was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt that has sent shockwaves across the deeply polarized European Union nation, the defense minister said.
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.