Furry Foes

St. Michel, a neighborhood of Newport Coast, is under siege. Insatiable and coming from all sides, the attackers are tearing up vegetation and wreaking havoc.

Elmer Fudd would empathize: It’s those rascally rabbits.

Residents recently struck back, hiring a pest control company to set baited traps for the rabbits.

“It’s not that we hate rabbits,” said Robert Saunders, president of the St. Michel homeowners association. “We just want to get into a situation where we’re in control, not them. We can coexist, but right now there’s more of them than us.”

St. Michel residents, who are also having problems with a proliferation of rats and mice, are not alone. County vector and animal control officials said complaints for all kinds of animals, especially small rodents and other furry foragers, are at their highest point in at least the last five years.

El Nino, which brought record downpours to the Southland last winter, is rearing its head yet again, this time, in the form of booming animal populations that are thriving a year after reaping the rewards of the lush vegetation that emerged in the stormy season’s wake.

Complaints of rat problems are up nearly 30% in the first four months of 1999, compared with the same period last year, said Jim Francisco, public education coordinator for Orange County Vector Control.

Animal control officers have been inundated with calls of animal sightings of all kinds, ranging from rabbits to snakes to bobcats, said Lt. Barbara Morrison of the county’s animal control agency.

The second-year effects of El Nino are not limited to smaller animals, Morrison said. In the timeless churn of the food chain, larger predators are also thriving because of the abundance of prey, she said.

But scientists say they are unsure of the precise mechanics of El Nino’s ripple effect through the food chain, although they cite a number of logical possibilities.

“To a degree, we’re just speculating,” said Peter Bloom, an independent biological consultant who monitors hawk and owl populations in Orange County. “It would take a very well-funded study to link vegetation density with rodent density and productivity and predator productivity.”

This much is certain: Last year’s rains brought a heady variety of grasses and baby scrubs over the summer, which in turn produced an abundance of seeds. Both the vegetation and the seeds are mainstays for small-mammal diets, allowing them to flourish.

Rabbits, mice and rats all reproduce “opportunistically,” or at rates that correspond to the availability of food. The abundance of animals being reported may be a product of this “generation explosion” over last summer, said Kenneth Nagy, a biology professor at UCLA.

On top of that, this year’s drier winter and the corresponding lower plant growth is driving many animals out of the woods and into residential neighborhoods, said Dan Fox, biologist and president of Animal Pest Management, the company hired by St. Michel residents to dispose of their rabbit problem.

“You have burnt hamburger in the” wilderness, Fox said, “and you have filet mignon in the neighborhoods with all the landscaping.”

Gophers will migrate up to a half mile and ground squirrels and rabbits up to a mile in their quest for food, Fox added. At St. Michel, the rabbits were consuming expensive flower beds and burrowing into lawns.

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But Bloom and others offer a slightly different explanation. Vegetation is still growing plentifully in the wild as a result of the previous year’s seed production, they say.

“While they might not grow terribly tall in a La Nina, you still have that huge seed bank produced from the El Nino year,” Bloom said.

The prevalence of the animals in residential areas may simply be an extension of the continued upswing of the creatures in the wild, he said.

Bloom points to the population surge he has observed among hawks and owls, which feed off small mammals, as evidence. Fueled by the abundance of prey, they are producing offspring in unprecedented numbers this year, he said.

Regardless of explanation, the prevalence of animals in close proximity to humans makes public health officials worry about the threat of disease.

Last year, district officials found a roof rat infected with bubonic plague in a backyard trap in Orange, although no outbreak of the disease occurred.

Wetter years also have been associated in the New Mexico area with hantavirus, a potentially deadly disease that can be spread in rodent droppings.

Still, health officials cautioned against alarm.

“The likelihood of something horrible happening is pretty low,” said Dr. Hildy Myers, health officer at the Orange County Health Care Agency.

One group that is benefiting from the animal boom is pest control companies. Many of the animals can inflict significant damage, from rabbits chewing up leafy vegetation to rats gnawing through furniture and even power lines.

Officials from Terminix International, a pest extermination company, report a 20% jump in business this year in Orange County.

Lee Clifton, general manager of Hydrex Pest Control Co., reports a similar increase. Frequently, customers try to get rid of the pests themselves with over-the-counter products before finally seeking professional help, he said.

An Irvine woman said she tried for a year to get rid of the roof rats running around in her attic, before turning to Hydrex. It got to the point where she couldn’t sleep at night from the sound of scampering above her.

“They sounded like they were wearing boots,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be published.

Back at St. Michel, residents are starting to regain control, noticing a slight reduction in rabbits.

“We would hope that after a season of doing this, we won’t have to do this next year,” Saunders said.