“It's like 101 Dalmatians, but with mice and not as cute,” says Kristine Sloat trying to put a positive spin on the the daily battle she faces trying to control a population of rodents that have invaded her home.
“They're in my son's room, in our closets, our clothing, they've been in our drawers, in our food,” she says. “I simply cannot get rid of them.”
Visits from pest control are so frequent, Sloat says she and her exterminator have become firm friends.
“He literally invited me for Thanksgiving dinner,” she jokes.
A resident of Costin Avenue for 12 years, Sloat says mice have never been a problem for her and her 23-year-old son; but then construction in the neighbourhood began in earnest.
The works have been an ongoing headache for Sloat, who says construction traffic has caused damage to her fences and vehicles.
But it’s the mouse invasion atop of her list of gripes, which began roughly two years ago.
“Once they started tearing those houses down, I started getting mice in my home,” said Sloat.
And she feels the problem could be helped if the City of Langford made amendments to its building bylaws.
Currently, the city requires developers to ensure hazardous materials, such as asbestos, are removed prior to receiving a demolition permit.
But there is no requirement for rodent remediation prior to demolition.
According to a city spokesperson, wildlife and pest control falls outside of municipal authority and is instead the responsibility of the Conservation Officer Service or private property owners.
“Removal of asbestos does take time,” said Sloat. “So if you're remediating one thing, why not another at the same time?”
“This is going to be an ongoing issue in a community like ours where they know they are developing a lot of different areas.”
According to Kurtis Brown from the pest control company Orkin Canada, demolition can sometimes be the reason rodents seek refuge in nearby properties, but often the situation is more complicated than it seems.
“It's also a symptom that there's access to the house,” says Brown, who has worked to combat the rodent challenges of Victoria for the last 15 years. “If a house is secured against rodent entry, then it doesn't really matter.”
But the rodent expert also notes mice only need a six-millimetre gap to enter a structure, which can make prevention difficult.
This is advice Sloat has already taken onboard, who says every effort has been made to find and fill in entry points to her home.
“The fact they're in the house already is the problem," she says. "I can't get them out. This is potentially unhealthy for us to be in this house."
Her only hope she says is a land assembly with her neighbours and a sale to developers, but Sloat is not hopeful this will happen any time soon, so for now, the fight against her unwanted four-legged lodgers continues.
Sloat is not the first resident in her neighbourhood to raise concerns about the lack of consideration given to homes in areas of high-density development.
The owners of a duplex on Bray Avenue, facing a future sandwiched between two six-storey apartment buildings, said they felt “forgotten” by the city and “blindsided” by the speed of construction on the street.
“I do think there should be more consideration for us living in these transitional high-density development neighbourhoods,” said Sloat. “The city needs to realize the impact construction is having on us.”
