Is Alberta Really Rat-Free?
This question is one of the most common questions that I get asked when people find out that I work in pest control in Alberta.
The short answer, is Yes. Alberta is rat-free.
Does that mean that you will never see a rat inside the borders of Alberta? No. We don’t have any magical force field at our borders that repels any rats from entering. Rats are frequently entering our borders from other provinces and other countries. But, Alberta is special in that we maintain a province wide, zero tolerance policy on rats in our province. This means that any rats that are found or reported in Alberta are quickly eliminated or removed. The designation “rat-free” means that we don’t have any permanent breeding zones, infestations, or established populations of rats, and that we have the willingness and the means to maintain this designation. It is also illegal to own rats in Alberta without special permits which come with stringent monitoring and reporting processes, and owning rats as pets is not allowed at all. This means that a lot of scientists and researchers in Alberta have extra hoops to jump through if they want to import rats for purposes of scientific research. As a result, we have a lot more studies being done on mice, than on rats.
Rats are most frequently brought into our province when they unknowingly hitch rides on recreation vehicles entering from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, The North West Territories, or from the United States. Occasionally we will see rats brought in with shipments of goods brought in by truck, train, or plane, but these are far less frequent.
A lot of rat sightings, or reports, actually turn out to be other animals that have been misidentified or mistaken for rats. I have had clients report to me directly, that they have a rat in their building, or have seen a rat on their property, and upon investigation it has turned out to be something else. Pack Rats (which are not rats at all), muskrats, voles, weasels, gophers and even mice have all been mistaken for rats at different times and in different situations over the years. But, there are some reports that do turn out to be actual rats. In order to keep our province rat free, we rely on reports form the general public. If you think you have seen a rat in Alberta you can contact the province’s rat and pest control program at 310-RATS, or if you live in Calgary, you can also call local bylaw officers at 311.
With the government, the general public, the pest control industry, and the province’s rat and pest control program all working together we can continue to keep our province rat-free. A designation that is only held by two places on the planet, Antarctica and Alberta. Though Alberta’s success has inspired a number of other cities and territories to adopt and implement plans of their own for becoming rat-free.
Antarctica, is quite remote, with very little population and no major urban centres, so its fairly easy to imagine how it has remained rat-free, but exactly how has Alberta managed to stay rat-free? Well, its a story with a fair bit of history, but we were helped a lot by the surrounding geography and the slow movement of rats as they made their way from east to west across north America once they were introduced here. Here is a link to a great article from the BBC Worklife series that features some great quotes and insights from Phil Merrill, the head of Alberta’s rat control program.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190517-how-these-cities-became-rat-free-zones