Old Pests Find New Opportunities

Some merchants in Los Angeles have other problems besides shoplifting and parking--rats. Dropped ceilings and hollow pillars used in construction give rats plenty of space to roam. And the food for sale at shopping centers and restaurants provides the pests with a ready food source, county sanitation inspectors say.

The disclosure this week of a horde of rats at the upscale Beverly Center may be the most recent and dramatic example of a rodent problem that shopping centers throughout the Southland say they must cope with from time to time.

Though the rat population in Los Angeles is fairly stable, “the opportunities for rats are increasing” with the proliferation of shopping centers and mini-malls, says James Townsley, a sanitation inspector.

Still, health officials pointed out that mice and other rodents are found far more frequently in homes, apartments and condominiums than in shopping malls. And rats are rarely found in office buildings because food isn’t so readily available, officials say.

Health officials say its not likely that problems like those at the Beverly Center will be repeated elsewhere. Construction nearby drove homeless rats into the mall. Also, the mall’s eight-story design gave rats plenty of entrances into the building. “It is really a unique set of circumstances,” says Frank Hall, senior biologist and head of rodent control for the county.

The upscale Westside shopping mall recently signed a contract for more than $10,000 to eradicate the rodents after the county Department of Health Services cited 15 mall restaurants for failing to move swiftly to remove the rats.

Even so, Hall says it is impossible to construct “rat-proof” shopping malls because they have so many entrances and have food and water at restaurants. He says rats can hide inside drop ceilings or in hollow columns that contain wiring. “For a rat, a mall has everything,” he says.

Rodents have cropped up elsewhere. For example, rats have been sighted occasionally at Santa Monica Place near the ocean in Santa Monica, according to Mark Morris, manager of the mall, but he says it is not a big problem and the rats are destroyed as soon as they are spotted.

Other mall managers say they must regularly exterminate for the pests even if a rat has never been spotted. “The last thing you want in your mall is a rat,” says Troy Gordon, manager of the Westside Pavilion.

At the Beverly Center and Santa Monica Place the chief culprit is the tree rat, a small brown rat that feeds on fruits, nuts and grains. Also called a roof rat, it is found throughout Los Angeles County--from the cities, to the beaches and to the mountains. “It is very cosmopolitan,” says Arthur Tilser, head of the health department’s consumer affairs office.

Tilser says rats are far more prevalent in residential areas than in shopping malls because they can feed on their favorite food--ripening fruit--and even pet food that is left outside. Tilser says the rat population tends to increase in the springtime, as more food in the form of ripe fruit becomes available. “This is the beginning of rat season,” he says.

Rats are unwanted for several reasons. They can destroy wood, clothing and electrical wiring with their razor-sharp teeth, Tilser says. Rats and mice contaminate food with their droppings and transmit a number of diseases, including salmonellosis, or food poisoning.

Mall managers say they regularly exterminate to prevent pests from invading the malls and possibly driving away shoppers. The Westside Pavilion has an elaborate pest control system that includes electrical bug zappers on the loading dock and strategic placement of glue paper--a sort of fly paper for rodents.

“We don’t let them shop here--Beverly Hills rats or otherwise,” says Kenneth K. Poole, assistant manager of Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance. Poole says the mall regularly exterminates against rats, mice and other pests even though he says he cannot recall any problems with rodents.

Glendale Galleria has been bothered by mice--not rats--on occasion. The most frequent mouse sighting was earlier this month, according to the health services department. Joseph W. Jones, director of operations at the Galleria, says mice sometimes enter the mall through its seven loading bays, usually hidden in cartons that are being delivered to merchants.