bloodrayne
06-08-2006, 05:20 PM
Marmots Running Wild In Prosser
Prosser, Washington — It sounds like a campy horror movie: An aggressive gang of large rodents terrorizing a senior community, burrowing under homes, leaving nasty droppings on front porches and, if you believe all the stories, actually attacking people.
For residents of the Wine Country Villa senior subdivision, though, it's no joke. And we're not talking about field mice here, either. These varmints, properly called marmots but known to nearby residents as groundhogs, woodchucks, rockchucks and a host of more-profane nicknames, can reach 30 pounds.
"Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asks Dick Bain, a Wine Country Villa resident who killed two smaller versions of the animal with a shovel Friday morning.
Bain, 78, doesn't like to kill animals. It's hard for him, he says. But two of the marmots crawled under a stack of carpentry wood right next to his house. And they have a bad history in the neighborhood already, he says.
"My neighbor got tackled by marmots two years ago and got chewed up pretty bad," Bain says.
That story was unverifiable, though, because he wouldn't reveal the man's name, saying the neighbor was embarrassed about the whole incident. But it's just one in a long line of reported marmot misdemeanors in the area. Another story has a neighbor reaching into a water tank to pull out a marmot he assumed was dead only to likewise be "chewed up pretty bad."
Attacks on property are more common. Ray Borgens can attest to that.
Borgens, 81, another Wine Country Villa resident, has sat helplessly as the varmints have walked right through his carport, leaving little droppings on the way. They've burrowed under his house. They've even climbed a ladder he left against his roof.
"They were snooping around the air ducts up there," he says.
Everywhere they go they leave droppings, which according to Bain often get tracked indoors "even though you think you've cleaned it off."
That has local residents worried about disease. They've called in the Benton-Franklin Health Department, they say, only to be told the animals posed no public health risk. They've also called the Prosser Police Department, which apparently won't do anything about the marmots and won't let residents shoot them inside city limits.
They don't know what else to do, and they don't think they should have to pay for it themselves.
But according to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, they just might have to. First, they'll need to lodge a complaint with the agency's Yakima office, then they'll be referred to a certified exterminator so the animals are dealt with humanely.
"These are not free services," says Wildlife spokeswoman Madonna Luers. "We do not have the staff to go out there and deal with these situations."
Luckily, she says, there really is no public health risk in living among marmots. They don't transfer infectious disease, she says.
As for keeping them away from homes, she suggests the best thing to do is seal off all sources of food or nesting material, such as trash cans and pet food dishes. And, of course, avoid the marmots if you can.
"They've probably become pretty accustomed to people," Luers says. "And it's not an animal you want to tangle with."
Prosser, Washington — It sounds like a campy horror movie: An aggressive gang of large rodents terrorizing a senior community, burrowing under homes, leaving nasty droppings on front porches and, if you believe all the stories, actually attacking people.
For residents of the Wine Country Villa senior subdivision, though, it's no joke. And we're not talking about field mice here, either. These varmints, properly called marmots but known to nearby residents as groundhogs, woodchucks, rockchucks and a host of more-profane nicknames, can reach 30 pounds.
"Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asks Dick Bain, a Wine Country Villa resident who killed two smaller versions of the animal with a shovel Friday morning.
Bain, 78, doesn't like to kill animals. It's hard for him, he says. But two of the marmots crawled under a stack of carpentry wood right next to his house. And they have a bad history in the neighborhood already, he says.
"My neighbor got tackled by marmots two years ago and got chewed up pretty bad," Bain says.
That story was unverifiable, though, because he wouldn't reveal the man's name, saying the neighbor was embarrassed about the whole incident. But it's just one in a long line of reported marmot misdemeanors in the area. Another story has a neighbor reaching into a water tank to pull out a marmot he assumed was dead only to likewise be "chewed up pretty bad."
Attacks on property are more common. Ray Borgens can attest to that.
Borgens, 81, another Wine Country Villa resident, has sat helplessly as the varmints have walked right through his carport, leaving little droppings on the way. They've burrowed under his house. They've even climbed a ladder he left against his roof.
"They were snooping around the air ducts up there," he says.
Everywhere they go they leave droppings, which according to Bain often get tracked indoors "even though you think you've cleaned it off."
That has local residents worried about disease. They've called in the Benton-Franklin Health Department, they say, only to be told the animals posed no public health risk. They've also called the Prosser Police Department, which apparently won't do anything about the marmots and won't let residents shoot them inside city limits.
They don't know what else to do, and they don't think they should have to pay for it themselves.
But according to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, they just might have to. First, they'll need to lodge a complaint with the agency's Yakima office, then they'll be referred to a certified exterminator so the animals are dealt with humanely.
"These are not free services," says Wildlife spokeswoman Madonna Luers. "We do not have the staff to go out there and deal with these situations."
Luckily, she says, there really is no public health risk in living among marmots. They don't transfer infectious disease, she says.
As for keeping them away from homes, she suggests the best thing to do is seal off all sources of food or nesting material, such as trash cans and pet food dishes. And, of course, avoid the marmots if you can.
"They've probably become pretty accustomed to people," Luers says. "And it's not an animal you want to tangle with."