Massapequa Park officials are planning to respond to a recent public outcry about the village's growing rat problem. The complaint came to the attention of Mayor James Altadonna and village administrators when Lisa Blaskey, a village resident, raised the issue of widespread rodent infestation in her neighborhood at the village board meeting March 17.

Blaskey lives on East Lake Ave. and has seen rats living and breeding in her backyard since August. Five of her neighbors have also complained about rats living on their property. She lives near a sump and the Sunrise Mall, both of which are prime breeding grounds for rodents.

Blaskey called the Nassau County Board of Health, which proposed various potential solutions. She also called exterminators, who placed two poison blocks in her backyard to kill the rats, to no avail.

Blaskey said the rodents have chewed through the floor in her shed, inside her garage, and two baby strollers. She estimated the damage to her property at about $1,000. "We pay a lot of taxes," she said. "I don't want to have to live with rats. I don't want to see them in the morning when I'm on my treadmill and I look out my basement window."

Deputy Village Clerk Linda Murphy explained that, currently, the village is in the process of trying to identify how large the problem is before contacting an exterminator to eliminate rats in the area around East Lake Ave. "We intend to work with residents to alleviate the problem," she said, "but, of course, the village can't foot the whole bill."

She went on to say that the village has contacted the Nassau County Board of Health and recently sent a letter to residents in the area, along with a brochure detailing the prevention of rats. The letter asked residents who were experiencing "problems of this nature" to call Village Hall immediately. "We have yet to receive a call," Murphy said.

Rats have been a problem for residents in other areas of Massapequa, as well. Alison Leighton has lived in North Massapequa near a sump for 12 years and had a rat problem three years ago. She called exterminators immediately and had results within two weeks, but said the exterminator told her if she stopped putting out rat traps, they would return. "Unless you take precautions, they're going to be there," she said.

Lynn Frank, an entomologist who works for Suburban Exterminators on Long Island, said rat infestations have been unusually common and widespread of late. "This particular winter has been the busiest we've had in years," he said.

He attributed the rise to a number of factors. One of the primary points he mentioned was the fact that oak trees dropped an inordinately large number of acorns over the past two years, which led to higher concentrations of all rodents, including rats. Other factors that may increase the likelihood of rat infestation include outdoor dog kennels, birdseed on the ground, sewer systems and mulch piles where rats live and breed. "All you need is one breeding pair of rodents to get a colony started," he said, "and it all happens rather quickly."

According to the Nassau County Department of Health, long-term rat control is not simple. The key is to control the number of rats in the area, not the individual rats. A rat control program has four important steps: Looking for signs of any rat activity in and around buildings and property; Removing the rats' source of food, water and shelter in the neighborhood; Preventing rats from getting into buildings by closing all entry points; and Reducing the number of rats by use of sticky traps, rodenticides, and other control measures.

In a community rodent control program, rodent extermination is an important tool and must be used in addition to removing the rodent's food, water and shelter. Extermination programs will fail if other sources of food are made available to the rats. Therefore, it is important to remove all food sources from the community.

For more information contact the Nassau County Department of Health Office of Community Sanitation at 571-3678. To report a rat problem to the village, call 798-0244, ext. 11.