Eastern Health Authority receives 74 complaints about rats, mice and other vermin in one year

If you have a mice or rat phobia, this will not be welcome news. “We will never get rid of them,” one Adelaide health authority admits, as its latest annual report shows vermin topped the list for complaints in 2018/19.

The Eastern Health Authority had more complaints about rats and mice last financial year than any other environmental health concern. Picture: File.

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Rats, mice, mosquitoes, pigeons and insects in suburban homes remain on the top of the Eastern Health Authority’s hit list.

There were 74 complaints to the EHA about vermin for the year to July, its annual report reveals.

EHA chief executive officer Michael Livori said “about 90 per cent” of complaints typically came from residents ringing about their neighbours’ derelict properties.

There were 57 calls about rats and mice, nine relating to mosquitoes and eight for other vermin – including pigeons and insects – in 2018/19.

“They (rats and mice) are typical of the urban environment,” Mr Livori said.

“We will never get rid of them.”

There were 57 calls about rats and mice to the Eastern Health Authority.

The report also reveals there were 37 environmental health complaints about hoarding and squalor between July 1, 2018 and June 30 this year.

Such matters “usually related to the condition of the property with a neighbour complaining”, he said.

Seven “risk to health” notices were issued over hoarding and squalor for the financial year.

However, the total number of complaints to the EHA dropped from 182 in 2017/18 to 164 last year.

“It can be a mixture of residential and commercial – it depends on the issue,” Mr Livori said.

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There had been 14 cases relating to infectious disease; nine about air pollution, air quality and dust; four instances of “hazardous substances”; and four over the “keeping of animals”.

Animal complaints often related to health and nuisance issues concerning chickens, pigeons and even pigs.

Two clandestine drug laboratories were discovered and deemed “unfit for human habitation”.

The EHA is a subsidiary of five councils: Walkerville, Campbelltown, Prospect, Burnside, and Norwood, Payneham & St Peters.