Oh, rats! They're everywhere
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
KIHEI, Maui — Maui residents who live in dry areas counted themselves lucky when mosquitoes spreading dengue fever generally bypassed them for the wet, lush portions of the island.
But now those leeward residents have their own troubles: a booming rodent population.
The problem, fueled by the right combination of rain and drought, isn't exactly a plague of Biblical proportion, but it has more than a few homeowners praying for relief.
They're coping by buying rat traps, bait, and concocting home remedies. It's a boon for pest-control companies and stores that carry traps and poison — although several locations have reported trouble keeping their shelves stocked.
While residents in leeward areas across Hawai'i are dealing with the expanding mouse population, Maui — and the communities of Kihei and Wailea in particular — seems to be hit especially hard as evidenced by the scores of mice caught recently in state Health Department traps.
Some of the stories and rumors going around South Maui are horrendous. Like the real estate agent who found 200 mice in a Maui Meadows pool. Or the homeowner who discovered 600 mice inside his unoccupied Wailea home.
"We don't know if that's true or just local legend, but it's going around,'' said Jim Wagner, a Maui Meadows resident who has his own mouse stories to tell.
Wagner said the mice have been drawn to his backyard swimming pool in extraordinary numbers. Each day for the past month or so, he has had to dispose of a dozen to 18 mice trapped in filters and traps and on floating vacuum hoses and pool toys.
"It's disgusting,'' he said. "I've had to start everyday with mass murder.''
At the beginning, Wagner would catch and release the little critters, but when they kept coming he began experimenting with different ways to exterminate them. Now, he drowns them in the pool and flushes them down the toilet.
"It used to be that I'd come up at night, turn on the pool lights and take a dip," he said. "Not anymore.''
Derek Smith of Kihei said the problem is especially irritating for his wife, an immaculate housekeeper who prides herself on a spic-and-span household.
"She used to freak out about the ants," he said. "Now, oh, my God!''
Mice are gnawing into foodstuffs and aluminum canned goods. They're literally making themselves at home.
"I was lying there watching TV one night when one came walking down the hall, stopped and looked at me," Smith said. "He started cleaning himself. Wasn't even afraid. It's like they're domesticated.''
Smith puts out five or six traps each night, catching up to a dozen by morning. His boys have daily trap detail.
"At one point I could hear one of those guys in the wall. I gassed it with WD-40. That seemed to take care of it,'' he said.
Even though Kihei seems to be getting the worst of it, residents in other areas are seeing more mice as well.
Terminix service manager Robert Seybold said parts of Upcountry are now getting it bad. One of his men reported 10 mice in an open rubbish can at a Kula home. As the employee walked the property on a service call, the mice were scurrying across his feet.
"He was scared to death they would run up his pants — and they will," said Seybold. "They're just so many of them.''
"We laugh about it,'' he added. "There's not a lot you can do but laugh. You have no control over the source. It's just like trying to hold a wall up as they stream down at you.''
Residents of Moloka'i are also dealing with the mice.
Henry Tancayo of Ho'olehua, an area of open fields and ranch land, said he caught a thousand mice in about two weeks last month. His son and neighbor, Travis Tancayo, catches more than 40 a day.
"I've never seen it like this,'' said the father, who has lived in Ho'olehua for 50 years. "They seem to be getting more and more brave. It's driving my wife crazy.''
Henry Tancayo said the most effective trap he has found is a five-gallon bucket. You spread feed in the bottom and leave it in a spot where the mice can climb up and jump in. "Overnight I usually get about 20 in there.''
Relief may not come soon enough. State Health Director Bruce Anderson said officials expect the problem to continue for at least a couple of months, until rains bring back vegetation in the fields and the mice have no reason to move into residential area.
In the meantime, residents will just have to ride it out.
"We got over dengue fever. We'll get over the mice,'' said Terry Tolman, executive vice president of the Maui Board of Realtors.
Reach Timothy Hurley at 808 244-4880, or e-mail at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com.
