The group was hard to miss Monday night. Wearing bright shirts, and holding signs, about 50 people from neighborhoods and communities across South East Baltimore County gathered before the County Council meeting.
"Bottom line is we are infested with rats in our neighborhood," said Susan Rayba with the West Iverness Community Association.
"They're overrunning the neighborhood,” Middlesex Community Association member, Clifford O’Connell said. “People cannot use their backyards, they're chewing the wires off cars, there's some pets that have died from them."
"That's why we're here, we want their help,” said Lynne Mitchell with the Eastwood Residents and Business Community Association. “All of these people here because we need their help."
Related: Rat infestation in Dundalk prompting frustration, fines for homeowners
They marched their message upstairs, and into council chambers. Five speakers made their case for why the county needs a new plan to deal with the rats, and step-up efforts while working together with residents.
"If you want to eradicate the rats, you have to do education, enforcement and extermination,” Raybe said. “And it's not all being done the proper way."
"We all have some ideas what we see out in the neighborhood, what can be changed, done better, and there’s some other options we want them to look at," O’Connell said.
It seems leaders were listening
"I stand ready to help you in any way I can to rid you of this problem, and rid our county of rats," said District 4 Councilman Julian Jones, Jr.
"I think that we need to explore different methodologies,” said County Councilman Todd Crandell from District 7. “We need to look at the greater frequency of treatments and we need to look at the rat eradication treatments that are happening, whether they're being effective, are we doing them frequently enough."
While the reaction from County Council was positive, no plan has been set to try and get rid of the rats.
The community group plans to attend the next few County Council meetings to make sure something is done about it.
