Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Fremont Middle School gets tough with roof rats

* Order: Rodentia

* Family Muridae: Rattus rattus (Linnaeus)

* Description: A dark brown or black medium-sized, slender rat with a long, naked tail that usually is longer than the body. Their ears are large and nearly hairless. Their droppings are long and cylindrical.

* Average length: 13 to 18 inches including the tail.

* Average weight: 5 to 9 ounces.

* Breeding: Throughout the year, with two peaks -- February and March and in May and June. Gestation period: About 21 days. Number per litter: About 7. Rats are born naked, blind, and nearly helpless. They mature rather rapidly and are able to reproduce when they are about 3 months old.

* Habitat: Non-indigenous to Southern Nevada. They often hitch rides on palm trees and fruit trees shipped here. They live in close association with man. They may live near the ground, but usually frequent attics, rafters and cross beams of roofs. Nocturnal, they are only seen frequently during daytime hours where their populations in an area are high.

* Diet: A wide variety of food items, including grains, meats, and almost any item that has nutritional value. Some local exterminators have had success using peanut butter to trap them.

* Pick up fruit and nuts that have fallen to the ground.

* Harvest citrus fruit in a timely manner.

* Do not throw bird food in your yard, and do not have a bird feeder.

* If possible, completely avoid putting pet food outdoors. Otherwise, cover outdoor pet food storage containers, and pick up pet food dishes once pets have eaten their fill.

* Clean up animal waste from yards.

* Keep garbage cans covered.

* Store all food in sealed containers.

* Clear underbrush.

* Keep trees and bushes trimmed.

* Use as much desert landscaping as possible to reduce water and food sources for rats.

School and Health District officials are hoping for a holiday weekend massacre at John C. Fremont Middle School.

After trapping 10 roof rats at the school in the middle of the Las Vegas Valley earlier this week, the plan was to set as many as 40 traps at the school during the four-day weekend that started Friday with the observance of Nevada Day and continues through Tuesday morning because schools are closed today for staff development.

Fremont is not the only school with roof rats. Five were caught at two schools in Summerlin in August. But right now the biggest concern is 50-year-old Fremont, the oldest middle school in the valley, because of the number of rats found there so far.

"This tells me we have a real problem and we will have to take real aggressive action," said Dave Broxterman, the Clark County School District's administrative manager for facilities.

The cafeteria of the school at 1100 E. St. Louis Ave. was closed Oct. 17 by the Health District as a precaution. Students have since been given sack lunches by the school.

The school's kitchen was searched with ultraviolet light because that reveals dried rat urine and other telltale signs of infestation, but the search found no such evidence, Health District and school officials said. Still, a reopening date for the cafeteria had not yet been determined as of Thursday.

Also, activities at the school this weekend, including the reading program and judo classes, were canceled so the baited traps could be set throughout the campus, school officials said.

The district is getting all too familiar with rat trapping.

In August the Clark County Health District trapped four rats at Ernest Becker Middle School, 9151 Pinewood Hills Drive, and one rat at William Lummis Elementary School, 9000 Hillpointe Road, both in Summerlin.

To date, the three schools are the only ones of the 212 in the public school system that have reported roof rats inside the facilities, Broxterman said.

Blood samples taken from the rats trapped and killed Oct. 22 through Oct. 24 at Fremont Middle School were sent to a laboratory Thursday for testing. It could take several weeks for the results to come back, health officials said.

Kalandra Sheppard, Fremont's assistant principal, said a letter was sent home Thursday to parents to inform them of this weekend's trapping and cancellation of activities.

"We are taking every precaution. Safety is our top priority," she said, noting that throughout the ordeal, no one at the school -- administrator, teacher or student -- has come in contact with a rat.

"We knew we had rat activity because of the droppings," Sheppard said. "The rats are nocturnal, so they only come out at night when no one is here. We also have not had any reports that rats were heard running about during the daytime.

Except for closing the cafeteria and canceling this weekend's activities, there have been no other disruptions of services and no lost class time because of the rodents, Sheppard said, noting that some of the school's science teachers have taken the opportunity to teach students about different types of rats.

Broxterman said precautions to prevent future rat invasions are in the works, including resealing older buildings like the Fremont school, prohibiting food in classrooms, keeping other foods covered and covering trash containers.

Prior to the roof rat problem at the Fremont school, "the only problem school was Becker," Broxterman said, noting that the school district has two state certified pest control experts on staff and does not hesitate to bring in outside help if needed.

"Before the opening of school (in September) we laid a number of traps at Becker and brought in Premier Pest Control to help capture the unwelcomed guests. We want to address the minor problem before it becomes a major one."

The rats got established at the two Summerlin schools despite their desert landscaping that is designed in part to keep roof rats away. Still, Broxterman credits the district's decision to install such water-saving foliage as having been successful in minimizing the roof rat populations outside most schools.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at [email protected].

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