By Ana Celerier Salcedo

This month’s Rodent Issues Special Committee met right in the middle of rat breeding season. The city’s Environmental Health Coordinator, Colin Zeigler, brought the committee a presentation about the new and ongoing initiatives to manage rodent activity within the community.

215 captures occurred in 2023, according to Zeigler’s presentation. 46 of these occurred at Davis Sq., 42 on the Bike path, 46 at MacArthur, 38 at Gilman, seven at Lincoln Park, and 36 at Union Sq. In 2022 there were a total of 186 captures during the period of March-May. Zeigler commented in his presentation that they wanted to move less high-activity smart boxes to alternative, more high-need areas.

Several councilors expressed interest in a targeted focus toward the community of East Somerville. This was due to the number of complaints from residents about the especially active rodent activity in their area. Zeigler commented that he was aware of this and that the program was already looking into expanding into different high-need neighborhoods, including East Somerville.

Phase III of the SMART box program is tentatively expected to roll out in the spring of 2024. Phase III could include the new initiative of looking at dumpster permits for commercial businesses and issuing those permits with an associated SMART box included due to commercial dumpsters being high-traffic areas for rodents.

Other updates included alterations to the Residential program, such as a switch to a 5-week format, improvements to data collection and reporting requirements by contractors, and the lack of cost efficiency regarding the utilization of dry ice or carbon monoxide to carry out rodenticide.

Zeigler was also excited to announce that the city was working towards the addition of another environmental health coordinator position to assist with case management.