Rat season on Whidbey Island is in full swing and some residents have come up with ingenious ideas for dealing with the naughty little vermin.

Katie Hicks, an environmental health specialist, is in charge of dealing with rat complaints to the Island County Health Department. She said the department has been inundated with calls about rats over the last few months as cold weather encourages the rodents to seek shelter in homes, cars, wood piles and buildings.

Darrell Small of Oak Harbor’s All Island Pest Control, on the other hand, has been killing rodents and bugs for 20 years. He said the rat problem has become worse over the last couple of years, and they’re not just a problem in the winter anymore. Rats are now year-round pests.

A Seattle TV station also spread the news of the island’s embarrassing problem with a high-profile story about rats on Whidbey.

“There’s not necessarily an above-normal number of rats this year,” Hicks said. “We’re not having rats bite people, so it’s not a huge concern from a health standpoint.”

Still, Hicks said many people have reported that their cars have been damaged by rats climbing under the hood, making nests and chewing on the wiring. Nobody is quite sure why the varmints gnaw on wires, except that they like to chew.

“Anecdotally, it seems to happen to Subarus more than other cars,” she said. “I’m not sure what that means.”

Chester Curry lives just north of Oak Harbor and he’s dealing with a rat problem. He’s killed six of them this year, and counting. He found one in the hood of his truck.

“The island’s overrun with them,” he said.

Curry created a clever invention to kill rats without harming cats and dogs. He actually measured the length of a cat’s “arm,” which was just under 14 inches. He cut a 14-inch length of rain gutter. He attached a piece of wood fitted into one end.

Curry explained that he places a chunk of rat bait inside the contraption, out of the reach of cats and dogs, but not rats. The rodents can crawl in and eat the yummy poison.

“It cost 90 cents,” he said.

On Taylor Road, Maddie Rose said the Country Place Mobile Home Park is also infested with really big rats. She’s had to bring her truck to the mechanic two years in a row because of rat-chewing damage. Her Oak Harbor mechanic said it’s become a common problem with all sorts of people — those who live in mansions and trailers.

This year, the mechanic’s bill was $400.

“I took my truck to Wal-Mart and they found a dead rat,” she said. “They were kidding me. They said, ‘you can keep the rats.’”

To battle the vermin, Rose has called in pest control experts twice, but found that her own methods are just as effective.

She puts poison “bait bars” in suet cages made for wild birds. She wires the poison cages underneath the hood of her truck and other places where rats frequent. That way, the rats have to gnaw and ingest the poison right away, instead of taking it and sticking it in a rat hole somewhere.

Rose also uses homeopathic-type techniques for warding off rats. She douses cotton balls with pure peppermint oil and places them in rat-prone areas. She sprinkles moth balls.

She also heard that it works to place Bounce clothes-softener sheets inside an engine to keep rats away. The sheets have to be placed at night and taken out before going for a drive.

Hicks, however, cautioned against using poisons. Even if the bait is kept away from pets, she said it can be a problem when poisoned rats die inside walls and start to rot. It smells really bad.

That’s why Small said his company uses live traps inside of buildings. Nobody wants dead rats in their home.

While the old-fashioned snap-traps are kind of gross, Hicks admits, they are still a good way to kill rodents.

But the best defense, she said, is prevention. That means preventing rats from enjoying the finer things in life in your neighborhood, like food, water and shelter. Bird feeders are a rat favorite. Keep bird seed, garbage and pet food in tight containers, out of reach of rats. Don’t pile fire wood against the house. Don’t allow standing water to remain.

Another option is to hire pest control experts. The phone book has a long list of companies.

Not only are rats really smart, but they are sneaky and athletic.

“They have really interesting skeletons,” Hicks said. “They can go through a three-quarter-inch hole.”

A good source of information on rats and how to get rid of them is online at the Health Department Web site, www.islandcounty.net/health.

The site includes some valuable information and tips, including what to do if you find a rat in the toilet. Apparently the furry little devils like to crawl in through sewer pipes.

It states, “If you find a rat in your toilet, flush it! (Hint: squirt a little dishwashing liquid under the lid into the bowl, wait a couple of minutes then flush.)”