Novato woman believes dumpsters to blame for rat infestation

NOVATO, Calif. (KTVU) - A North Bay woman has some destructive visitors who won't go away: rats. And she blames dumpsters, shared by two restaurants, that are positioned right behind her house next to a seven foot wooden fence.

"Last night they came in, rats ate through the wall, " Michelle Derviss told KTVU, as she showed a hole in her kitchen, hastily patched with wire mesh.

She has repaired walls, vents, wires, her roof, anything rats can chew through, she's seen it.

"They have come down through the roof vent and in the toilet," said Derviss, " and It's a constant battle, when I fix one hole, they eat through the siding in another area."

Derviss lives one block off Novato's downtown.

A landscape designer, she has been in her property for twenty years, long before the current restaurants were established.

"I have a system of rat traps," she acknowledged, showing a shoe box with a trap inside.
She has used exterminators many times, but says her own traps kill one, even two rats a day in her home and yard.

"It's a nightmare," she exclaimed, "and they're being attracted here because the garbage is constantly overflowing."

On Tuesday evening, the two dumpsters in the alley behind the restaurants were closed and tidy, but Derviss has photographed occasion when they were too full to shut, with overflow garbage on the ground. Derviss says this is the magnet that keeps rats coming- then it's a quick hop over the fence to her place- especially since trash also falls into her yard when the dumpsters are lifted.

She complains she's made many sacrifices to the rodents: no more vegetable garden, no more fruit trees.

"I I threw away my barbecue. You open up a barbecue and there's a rat family living in it. You can't ever eat out of that."

Derviss has a file stuffed with complaints she has filed with the property owner and the city.
She has complained the situation is a fire hazard, health hazard, and safety hazard, but has been rebuffed.

"They're saying I'm harrasssing the city for complaining about this," she observed.

She wants the dumpsters simply moved away from her house.

Rustic Bakery is closed in the evenings, but at La Hacienda Tacqueria, the manager declined to go on camera, but shrugged off her Derviss's dilemma, saying he's complying with city codes.

Numerous bait traps positioned along the alley suggest everyone knows rats are a problem, the quesion is whose problem.

"They don't want the rat habitat next to their building, would you want a rat habitat next to your building? I don't!" concluded Derviss.