Rat infestation drives woman from home

A Nanaimo pest control company has come to the rescue of a single mother battling a rat infestation that she says will force her to leave her rental home.

Tamara Hounsome said she has caught 21 rats in the past two and a half weeks. Even her two dogs and a cat were not scaring the rodents away.

"The rat situation in my house is so far out of control," Hounsome told CBC News. "I have put down approximately 25 traps throughout the house, mainly focusing on the crawl space downstairs. I am catching, usually on average, two to four per day."

One night she even saw one scurry over her 14-year-old son while he was sleeping.

But with her out-of-town landlord not responding to calls, Hounsome couldn't afford an exterminator to clear out the pests, since she and her two sons live on a fixed disability pension.

'I need out,' woman says

"I am financially broke. I can't afford much more. I've been borrowing money to try and trap these rats, and I can't do it any more. I need out," she told CBC News on Tuesday.

But then after hearing her story, Jeff Kitchen of Orkin Pest Control arrived on Wednesday to take care of the rats for free.

"You feel sorry for these people and you wonder why the landlord doesn't step up. But that's just something I'm not in control of," said Kitchen.

"Having my manager step up and say, 'Go do the job,' I felt great," he said.

Hounsome says she feels tremendous relief now that the rats have been cleared from her home, but after all she's been through, she is still looking for another place to rent.