When the sun goes down, the rats of Vancouver鈥檚 Burrard Skytrain Station emerge, in a scurrying blur of fur and whipping tails.
Dozens of them, large and small, scamper around a park in front of the downtown station, running up and down the stairs among the legs of commuters and a wary reporter.
Some appear to be feasting on birdseed scattered on the ground.
Pest control experts suggest the skin-crawling scene may be due to a provincial ban on a type of rat poison, as well as other factors including Vancouver鈥檚 unusually warm winter.
Ashley Cochrane with Vancouver pest control firm The X-Terminators said she had watched a video of the rat 鈥減arty鈥� that unfolds in Art Phillips Park.
鈥淯nfortunately, it鈥檚 definitely not good to see that, you know, for them to be so brazen 鈥� it鈥檚 a shock,鈥� said Cochrane.
She said rodent-related services have become a bigger part of their business lately.
鈥淚 speak with a lot of people on the phone and the consensus is we鈥檝e never had this problem before and now there鈥檚 just a lot more activity that we鈥檙e seeing,鈥� said Cochrane.
Bill Rough, a pest control specialist with Surrey-based Advance Pest Control, said he recently responded to a rat infestation in a downtown Vancouver duplex.
He set 30 to 40 traps. But within half an hour, he got a call from the customer saying they鈥檇 heard the traps going off.
鈥淚 came back and there were nine rats in the traps 鈥� and they were the size of a small cat,鈥� said Rough.
He said rat-related calls have gone up 30 to 40 per cent in the past 18 months. 鈥淚t has been gripping crazy lately,鈥� said Rough.
In January 2023, the province banned some types of anticoagulant rodenticides, saying they posed a risk to animals that eat poisoned rodents, such as hawks, and owls.
Pets or children could also be at risk, the government said, and only 鈥渆ssential services鈥� such as hospitals and food production facilities were exempted.
Rough said the ban was one of the main reasons for the increase in rat activity in the Lower Mainland.
He said the government should 鈥渢weak鈥� the policy by allowing people to use the banned rodenticide with caution in infested areas.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 see why that would be a problem (but) that鈥檚 not my decision, unfortunately,鈥� said Rough.
Jason Page, general manager with Solutions Pest Control, said many factors contributed to the increase in rodent activity, including the poison ban, milder winter temperatures providing better breeding cycles, increased food availability from backyard chicken coops and restaurant patios, and increased urban development.
Page said the poison ban was 鈥渨ell-intentioned.鈥�
鈥淗owever, with every action, there is always a reaction. In this case, the apparent reaction we are seeing appears to be a 50 per cent increase in rats and mice,鈥� said Page.
Jay McIntyre, a service supervisor with Solutions Pest Control who oversees rodent work in Greater Vancouver, said he had also seen a video of the rats outside Burrard station.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not normal, but it doesn鈥檛 come as a surprise,鈥� said Mclntyre.
He鈥檚 been in the pest control industry since 1996 鈥� he said one of his career highlights was trapping 65 rats in one house.
Mclntyre said his company has seen a 鈥渟teady increase鈥� of about 50 per cent in calls about rats in the past several years.
Although pest control companies are confident about the spike in rodent activity in Metro Vancouver, most municipal authorities lack hard data.
The cities of Surrey, Richmond and New Westminster said they don鈥檛 have data on rat-related calls
However, a City of Vancouver spokesperson said they received 1,174 calls about rats on the city鈥檚 3-1-1 phone line last year, compared to 1,141 in 2022.
Kaylee Byers is a senior scientist with the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society at Simon Fraser University, who also calls herself a 鈥渞at detective.鈥�
She said the lack of a comprehensive system for rat sightings makes it hard for wildlife biologists to tell if populations are growing.
鈥溾�嬧�婽he thing is, nobody actually knows and that鈥檚 because we don鈥檛 have any form of municipal systematic reporting system for rats and rat sightings in the city,鈥� said Byers.
鈥淭he best thing we have is sort of anecdotal evidence, which is calls to pest control professionals, but that data is not perfect because not everybody will call a pest control professional.鈥�
In 2013, Byers joined the Vancouver Rat Project, an attempt to monitor and study rat movements around the city. Her team once captured more than 700 rats in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.
She said cities in B.C. should follow the lead of rat-free provinces, like Alberta, as well as invest in rat management programs tailored differently to every city based on its rat populations.
鈥淩ats are a part of our cities, and managing them is a complex issue,鈥� she said.
鈥淧art of the problem is that we鈥檙e approaching it like it鈥檚 a simple one. See a rat, remove a rat, or kill a rat, and it鈥檚 not working. We need to think more broadly, we need to address it as a complex issue in order to come up with innovative and multiple solutions to managing rats now and in the future.鈥�
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