It's more lilkely to be rats in the belfry, possums

IF YOU live in one of Melbourne's older suburbs or near the bay, that scratching noise in your roof or walls could be a possum or a bird - but given the time of year it's more likely to be a rat.

According to experts, Melbourne is entering its ''rat season'' when cooler weather sends the rodents scurrying indoors.

Paul and Maruta Rodan of Malvern have seen plenty of rats recently. For a while, their 12-year-old cat Chloe was bringing one home every night.

''In our part of the world every time a house is bought it is more often than not demolished and most houses have some rats that have to go somewhere and many of them go straight down the cat's mouth,'' Mr Rodan said.

Chloe has been happily making the most of it, catching rats to her heart's content. ''Over the course of a couple of weeks there would have been eight or nine, sometimes it was virtually every night.''

Ms Rodan said rats preferred to call leafy suburbs like Malvern home.

''In the so-called better suburbs, there are more rats here than in the ones with concrete gardens,'' she said.

Nigel Williamson has been ''dealing'' with rats for 25 years. The former RSPCA employee runs an animal rescue business and he gets many calls to deal with possums in roofs. But more often than not it's rats.

Mr Williamson said 95 per cent of homes he visits in Melbourne show evidence of rats. His experience is backed up by figures released by Archicentre last year that revealed up to 90 per cent of houses inspected in some council areas contained evidence of rats or mice.

''Now that the heat of the summer has gone, the weather has changed and the rats are now going into people's roofs; our work load has certainly increased threefold,'' Mr Williamson said.

He said rats cause millions of dollars worth of damage. ''I reckon there should be a massive baiting program going on around Australia to eradicate rattus rattus out of Australia, which is an introduced species,'' he said.

He urged home owners to set baits. ''You have got no idea you have got rats until something goes wrong; they have chewed a wire, an electrical light or a power point doesn't work any more,'' he said.

Mr Williamson said older suburbs and those close to the beach or with lots of greenery were more likely to have rats.

''Look at the green wedge belt that goes from St Kilda all the way down the coast to Mornington; there is a green corridor down through Brighton, Sandringham, Beaumaris, Black Rock, that has always been our number one area for rats - two to three kilometres from the shoreline of Port Phillip Bay,'' he said.

Kingston Council has been setting baits for rats for 16 years in 12 sites along the 13 kilometres of Kingston foreshore. Port Phillip council and the City of Melbourne are also believed to bait rats. Malvern has Chloe.

Mice in kitchen? No worries, stay open for 5 months

Mice in kitchen? No worries, stay open for 5 months By RICHARD BAKER
AGE INVESTIGATE UNIT

A DEAD mouse in a home-made trap, rodent droppings, cigarette butts and uncovered food in a filthy refrigerator were just some of the things City of Glen Eira cadet enviromental health officer Lachlan Northey found when he inspected Glen Huntly's Gourmet Inn last year.

Click here to view full report >>

Operators of Chinatown restaurants in hotpot over poor hygiene

Operators of Chinatown restaurants in hotpot over poor hygiene
By STEVE BUTCHER

The propietor of a popular Melbourne Chinatown restaurant has been fined $40,000 for food, cooking and hygiene conditions a magistrate said "you would not find in a kennel".

Click here to view full report >>

There's a cockroach in my soup (but don't tell the neighbours)

There's a cockroach in my soup (but don't tell the neighbours)
Get a grip - it's the drought bringing in the roaches, not bad housekeeping or dirty habits, writes PAUL HEINRICHS.

The meek will inherit the Earth but they won't have it to themselves: cockroaches, say the boffins, are many times more capable of surviving an atomic bomb than mere humans. But it turns out that the unsavoury critters are struggling with climate change, too.

Click here to view full report >>

Small price to pay for peace of mind

Small price to pay for peace of mind
A pre-purchase inspection can prevent lots of headaches, reports David Adams.

Try as we might to be emotionally detached, when most of us are looking to buy a house or an apartment, the property's overt attractiveness is often a big part of the appeal.But it's what we can't see - whether the home is structually sound, whether there is rising damp in the walls and whether the wiring is up to standard, for example - that can cause the biggest headaches.

Click here to view full report >>

Hard nosed business relies on local software

Hard nosed business relies on local software. Many people confuse the terms, "regimentation" and "discipline" and tend to use one when they mean the other.

Simon Dixon, owner and technical director of Melbourne based Exopest, understands the difference and knows which philosophy he values most highly: strive for excellence.

Exopest was formed in July 1985 when four pest managers, Simon Dixon, Laurie Agan, Bob Rennie and Greg Donnison, left Antipest (formerly Rentokil) to strkie out on their own.

Termites early on the bite

Termites early on the bite
HOME owners face millions of dollars of damage from an early attack of termites.

Warmer weather and drought conditions have brought termite season froward this year.

And authorities have revealed Melbourne's six worst suburbs for termite infestation.

One in five homes in Wantirna, Newport, Monbulk, Armadale, Frankstone and Greensborough has a termite problem, building advisory service...

Click here to view full report >>

Eaten away by non-existent problem

Eaten away by non-existent problem
Termites are attacking the suburbs but some councils won't admit it, writes Clay Lucas.

VICTORIA'S termite problem has become so bad the whole state could be designated termite prone, a move that could push up new home prices.

The building Commission, the state government body that oversees building laws, is investigating the alarmingly high levels of termite attacks in the state. Each council has the legal discretion to declare a termite proble.

Click here to view full report >>