An elderly widow has spoke of her distress after rats invaded her kitchen, while claiming her calls for help went ignored.
Edna O’Hara first became aware of rodents scuttling across her oven and kitchen worktops on December 10 after spotting them on Ring doorbell footage. The 80-year-old said she called Thirteen Housing that same day but no-one arrived.
After being contacted by Teesside Live, the housing association has apologised for the delay and said they visited Mrs O’Hara on Wednesday, January 8. But Mrs O’Hara believes it came too late for her beloved pet dog Lilly, who died on December 27.
She thinks Lily may have picked up a disease from the rats, such as Weil’s disease, also known as leptospirosis. “They carry all types of diseases and and when I come to think about it, I wonder if they’ve passed on Weil’s disease to Lily,” she said.
“She was a healthy little dog. She was only ten.”
Mrs O’Hara has lived in the house on Barrington Crescent since 1958 and said, while she has had mice in the house previously, she has never seen a rat in the property. Weeks after the first appearance, she said they still continue to appear almost every night.
She told how she has spent hours cleaning and bleaching her kitchen, while also setting up numerous traps including sticky pads, electric rat catchers and manual bait traps. On Wednesday morning, she found the rodents had been in a cupboard and gnawed through boxes of her hot drink packets.
Mrs O’Hara has now been offered support from Thirteen’s housing services team
(Image: Terry Blackburn)
“I’ve been constantly sweeping the floor and washing it with Dettol and scrubbing my worktops with bleach,” she said. “I’ve also been putting Domestos down the side of the freezer but you can’t reach all the way back.
“I have footage on my phone of the rats jumping up onto my worktops where I prepare food.” Mrs O’Hara said she has sent numerous emails to Thirteen Group about the issue, along with the footage. She also said she was let down on a previous scheduled visit on January 2.
“They’ve given me false information saying they are going to send people round,” she said. “I waited in all day from 8am to 5pm on January 2 when they said the rat investigation people would come to my house and not a soul came.”
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Mrs O’Hara continues to grieve the loss of Lily who first became unwell on Christmas Day. Over the next two days the dog suffered diarrhoea and was showing signs of “restlessness”.
“Within two days at the most she started vomiting and diarrhoea and she then passed away,” said Mrs O’Hara. The pensioner found the little dog’s body at the back door of the kitchen, with bloody water pooled beside her mouth.
Due to the fact she had cameras installed in her kitchen, Mrs O’Hara tragically recorded her own pet’s death. It came just after the three-year anniversary of her husband John’s death, and the pensioner said it hit her hard.
“I have lost my little Jack Russell, because I believe she had been in contact with urine or droppings off the rats,” she said. “There was only me and her here – she was my companion.”
‘We would like to apologise’
Michelle Younger, director of experience and estate services at Thirteen, said they have been investigating since Mrs O’Hara reported the issue last month. “The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our priority and, since receiving a report about pests from Mrs O’Hara in December, we have been working closely with our pest control provider to investigate,” she said.
“Our pest control provider visited Mrs O’Hara’s home on January 8 to locate the entry point of the pests and carry out treatment. As the entry point is close to plumbing in the property, a follow up appointment has been arranged for our trade operatives to carefully seal the area and prevent future access for pests.
“We would like to apologise to Mrs O’Hara for the delay with visiting her home. We are committed to taking all necessary steps to thoroughly resolve the issue.
“As we understand that this is a distressing time for Mrs O’Hara, our housing services team is also in touch with her and has visited her home to offer support.”
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