THE RAT RACE RODENTS MAKE SPRING APPEARANCE.

Byline: Robert Monroe Staff Writer

Kelly Rice loves living next to nature amid lush Agoura Hills, but this mild spring has brought her a little too close to mice. Now is the season for rodents to give birth, and the hills and trees are alive with them.

Rice has spotted mice under a wet bar inside her house and a barbecue outside - and suspects they have relatives.

``The way this house is built, if you're a rodent you can get around just about anywhere,'' Rice said.

She is not alone.

County health officials who handle reports from the public said they are bracing for the calls to start once the newborn vermin begin their public forays.

``It will increase as we get into summer,'' said Art Tilzer of the county Department of Health Service's consumer protection bureau. He estimated that rat calls to the Vector Management Program number between 6,000 and 7,000 a year.

Recently, the county Health Department issued its annual warning about rats and mice, which can carry bacteria and viruses that make them four-legged vessels for illnesses ranging from plague to hantavirus.

``We are concerned for that potential, and the way to control these diseases is to control the rodents first,'' said David Leaduff, an environmental health specialist in the agency's Vector Management Program.

There has been no human case of plague in the county since 1984, according to county epidemiologists. There has been no local human case of hantavirus yet, and in 1999, there were fewer than a dozen cases of murine typhus, a rodent-borne disease that is not usually fatal.

Dr. Roshan Reporter, a county health epidemiologist, attributed the lack of human sickness to aggressive monitoring of county rodents. Nonetheless, she warned that the early spring deluges raise the likelihood of encounters between vermin and humans.

``We've had pretty good rains and this time of year, I suspect there's a lot more potential for exposure,'' she said.

Although the last two years have been relatively dry, Leaduff could not say whether that translates to a smaller food supply and fewer rats. Some exterminators claim the opposite, that their businesses and the vermin population are booming because of mild weather.

Hydrex Pest Control of Van Nuys is receiving twice as many calls this spring as it did during the same period two years ago, inspector Peter Rosza said. In a repeat of last spring, roof rats have besieged homes in Brentwood and Sylmar this season.

``Those are the areas that are more lush with foliage and that's the primary food source,'' Rosza said. ``It's been mild so these animals will multiply more.''

Brad Dusatko, owner of Protector Pest Control, doesn't call this rat and mouse season, but said that the presence of newborn rats means that for every one seen, there could be several waiting back at the nest.

``They're not foraging yet so it could take a few weeks to catch them,'' Dusatko said during a recent inspection of Rice's home.

Roof rats, also known as tree or black rats, are acrobatic rodents, sometimes nesting in the crowns of palm trees and using power lines as pathways. They are more common in the Valley than the Norway rat, their larger urban counterpart that tends to burrow rather than climb.

Neither species is native to California. House mice, exterminators said, are more ubiquitous and can be found nearly anywhere.

Rodent control information is available from the DHS Vector Management Program by calling [phone].

RAT PATROL 

Tips from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to keep your home vermin-free:

--Trim back plants. Ivy, climbing plants and other ground cover as well as unwanted weeds and brush encourage rats and mice to find a way into your house. A general rule is to trim thoroughly enough to be able to see through foliage to ensure rats can't make a home there.

--Seal all food. That includes pet as well as human food and garbage. Rats aren't finicky eaters.

--Plug up potential entry points into your home. The most common, said vector control officials, are crawl space vents. Place wire mesh over holes larger than a half-inch to deter rats or a quarter-inch to stop the smaller house mouse.

--Set out poison if infestation is detected. But use traps if you have children or are unsure about the safety of poison.

--Get a cat. They are, after all, the natural way to get rid of rodents. But make sure you aren't using poison at the same time.

SOURCE: Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Vector Management Program

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1) Brad Dusatko, owner of Protector Pest Control, talks with Agoura homeowner Kelly Rice about mice in her home.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(2) Brad Dusatko, owner of Protector Pest Control, sets traps in Kelly Rice's Agoura home to catch mice and rats.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box: Rat patrol (see text)