Netanya residents smell a rat

Rats are a growing problem around the city's central bus station as well as in some of the areas near Andreas and Nitza Streets.

By NOGA MARTIN (TRANSLATED)
Netanya residents have been reporting rats in all central parts of the city, Kol HaSharon reported last week. According to the report, rats are a growing problem around the city's central bus station as well as in some of the areas near Andreas and Nitza Streets. Every summer, the number of complaints about rats and mice in the city increases, as the vermin find their way through cracks in walls and sewer pipes to go in search of food. According to the report, in recent weeks the area adjacent to the bus station has become overrun by rats to the extent that some residents of nearby apartments find it difficult to get into their buildings. Kobi, who lives on Rehov Levontin, some distance from the bus station, said that while passing the station in the evening, he and his family see rats "running everywhere. If someone wanted to do something [about it], we would have seen dead mice a long time ago. But no one is doing anything." Not even nearby synagogues are rat-free. "Friday before last was horrible," Kobi's wife, Ronit, told Kol HaSharon. "We left the synagogue and the entrance was full of little mice. We tried to pass by, and saw that there wasn't any food [there]. They just came from the restaurants and from the garbage bins on Rehov Ahad Ha'am that are always full." The Netanya Municipality told Kol HaSharon in response to the report that it took care to empty trash bins every day. "The city provides extermination [services] by request, as well as in public areas." The city said that restaurant and business owners should keep their back entrances clean. "The city empties trash bins twice a day, and garbage cans three times a week. It's easy to make general accusations," the municipality said, adding that when complaints were received about rodents on private property, it took care to notify the proper authorities.