One of the partners in the company redeveloping the old Sarnia General Hospital finds it hard to believe that there's been a "mass exodus" of rats from the site.
Several homeowners living near the demolition project have reported an infestation of rats.
Mark Lumley of GFive Inc. said they've conducted pest control and there's been no food in the building for them to eat.
"I'm a licensed exterminator myself, partly because of my farm requirements, and so I actually just put a whole lot of bait stations in there and we had very little activity on them," said Lumley.
He doesn't dispute that crews are creating a lot of noise, dust and increased traffic, but said there could be many reasons for the increase in rats.
"I know when the city does sewer maintenance rats live in sewers and there are things to eat in there, so I don't know what the city's maintenance schedule is like on storm sewers and other sewers, but there's lots of places that rats come from. Plus winter's coming and rats are looking around for a warm place to live. It probably has nothing, whatsoever to do with us," he said.
Lumley said he offered pest control advice to the one homeowner that called him.
Ultimately, he says whether or not the rats are their fault, he hopes the long-term gains from taking the building down, "far outweigh the short-term pain" for residents nearby.