Local authorities are still investigating several recent reports of large rats in the area of Little River Road, but all has been quiet this past week.

Health officer Larry Middlemiss said he has placed numerous traps along the road and near residents’ homes, but has not seen or caught a rat in the past week.

"If rats are out there, there is no way you are going to catch them all in one week," Middlemiss said last week.

Rats were first reported two weeks ago by resident Jim Sloan of 42 Little River Road. Middlemiss and other town officials are researching whether these rats are coming from the former landfill on Route 125, which was capped two months ago. The town is working with landfill closure company H.E. Sergeant of Rochester and Craig Musselman Associates of Portsmouth.

"We have not found any (proven) incidents of rats," Middlemiss said. "We are monitoring the situation. Since last week there have been other residents in the area that have reported seeing rats. I wouldn’t necessarily call it an infestation, more like a possible migration."

State Rep. John Flanders, R-Kingston, said he received a call from Sloan a couple of weeks ago concerned the town wasn’t doing enough to get rid of the rats in the area. Flanders, in turn, talked with officials at the New Hampshire Statehouse. He said he felt the town wasn’t acting swiftly to solve the problem.

Flanders had even referred to the rats as "the size of cats" and "big monsters."

"My treatment seemed to work," Sloan said. "They (the town) put a trap in my basement and I put out Decon and it poisoned them. We have our fingers crossed that we don’t have any more. We might have eliminated the problem here. At least it awakened people to get something accomplished."

Sloan added that he never saw the rats or even their droppings, but was told by a neighbor they were in the neighborhood.

Virginia Haynes of 39 Little River Road said she hasn’t had any problems with rats but was concerned when she heard about Sloan’s report.

"We have not seen any rats around here and we live directly across the street from the Sloans," Haynes said. "We haven’t seen any rats in years because sometimes we’d see them in the winter. One year we put out sunflower seeds and one or two rats came around, but when we stopped they went away."

She wonders whether the rats are wood rats, rodents that live in wooded areas primarily in the south Atlantic or Gulf coasts of the United States and have furry tails. Haynes said the rats could be coming from the Magnusson Farm along Route 125 because the family is cutting down numerous trees.

Middlemiss said that is highly unlikely because the rats move from one food source to the next, and the Magnussons’ woods did not provide food for them.

A resident at 58 Little River Road said she hadn’t seen any rats but wanted to know what part of the road they were reported.

"We haven’t had any at our house, thank God," she said.

Another resident at 61 Little River Road said she has never seen any rats in the neighborhood, but if there were any in their basement or around their home their dogs would let them know.

Middlemiss is keeping selectmen up to date on the issue, and he hopes to solve the rat problem as soon as possible.

He added that this issue is not a health risk unless the rats test positive for diseases.

Middlemiss encourages any residents who may see multiple rats in the neighborhood to call him at Town Hall at 642-3342.