Floods spark rat plague in homes across southeast Queensland

Flooding and torrential rain have triggered a shocking surge in creepy-crawlies finding their way into Queensland homes.

Queenslanders in flood clean-up mode are reporting a shocking rise in the number of pests and critters seeking higher ground, with rats, cockroaches, and snakes an increasingly common presence in suburban homes and restaurants.

The devastating flooding in late February and early March swept through streets and homes across the state’s southeast, with many residents only now able to return to their homes after a taxing clean-up.

As if that wasn’t enough, a few unwanted guests have made themselves at home.

As well as ballooning numbers of mosquitoes, midges, and other crawling insects, families of rats are now occupying homes in flood-ravaged regions.

“It’s just been terrible, all the rats have come out of the drainpipes,” says Carol Mihan from Bruin Pest Control in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

“There are cockroaches everywhere … and a lot of the spiders have come inside because they don’t want to be out in the rain.”

As well as ballooning numbers of mosquitoes, midges, and other crawling insects, families of rats are now occupying homes in flood-ravaged regions, with Gympie’s Penelope Henain telling the ABC she saw three giant rats, about 15 centimetres long, in her yard.

“I’ve never had rats here before,” she told the ABC.

“I know exactly where they‘re harbouring. You can hear the movement underneath the house.

“The birds and Kookaburras, they all sit there looking at the shed.

Josh Castle says he has been run off its feet responding to people finding snakes in roofs, decking, and pool filters.

“We all know what’s under that shed because that shed never used to be as noisy.”

Large swathes of southeast Queensland and Northern NSW have been smashed by deadly wet weather during the first two months of 2022 with residents sifting through billions of dollars in property damage.

This rain has – naturally – also impacted wildlife, flushing many subterranean-dwellers out into suburbia.

There was already an uptrend in the number of snakes being found in homes as an accelerating urban sprawl robs them of habitat.

What’s more, the recent rain of the past two weeks has caused more problems as the pest control measures and sprays put in place after the earlier floods requires touching up.

“With how heavy the rain has been … in certain areas we’ve had to come back and re-do a lot, which never happens,” Ms Mihan said.

Brisbane-based snake catcher Josh Castle told NCA Newswire the rise in rodents and insects had also been met by more reports of snakes in and around homes.

Carol Mihan from Bruin Pest Control in Brisbane’s northern suburbs says rat activity has surged 10-fold since the floods.

He said his business – Josh’s Snake Catching – had been run off its feet responding to people finding snakes in roofs, decking, and pool filters.

“It has been absolutely hectic since the floods,” Mr Castle says.

“I don’t do rodents – more reptiles, but that said there has been a lot more rodent activity too.

“Certainly with snakes we get called to areas on hills … they get into a lot of retaining walls and rock walls.”