The City of Kamloops has risen in the latest rat rankings published by pest-control company Orkin Canada.

In 2018, the city ranked 14th across BC municipalities, up from 20th in 2017.

Orkin Canada’s Manager for the Southern Interior Matthew Wright says the rankings show the rats and mice in the Kamloops area have been increasing.

“For mice, the numbers go up and down as the weather changes or if it’s been a mild winter,” he said. “There’s always peaks and valleys for mice but definitely notice an increase with the rats over last year.”

He says they’ve been getting more calls from commercial businesses, but residential calls are almost on par as well.

“The rats that we are getting are roof rats,” he noted. “Typically, they nest up high versus mice that are more inclined to be on the ground level.”

“They will both go up high and both go down low but with mice, with generally you’re always looking down low, but now we have to start looking at holes up higher in the buildings.”

Wright adds it’s a good idea for people to try and reduce the number of places these rodents can live in.

“Keep your door sweeps in good shape and your overhead door seals, same thing,” he noted. “Those are your big entry points.”

“And then just keeping your clutter away from the outside of the building. So if you got a bunch of board for firewood or even long grass, they’ll create harbourage areas for them to be comfortable in.”

The top five cities in B.C. for rodent calls were Vancouver, Victoria, Burnaby, Richmond, and Surrey.