Rats as big as cats walk at night in the grass around the buildings in the Municipality of Gjorce Petrov. Residents are worried and fear that they will not enter their homes through the sewers, and they are also afraid of the spread of infections. According to them, the situation is alarming, and no one is taking any action. As they claim, they have not seen extermination carried out and baits with poisons placed in the shafts for years.

That this is so, according to them, is also evidenced by the "burnt" manhole covers in the lawns around the buildings, which have not been opened for years. The residents of the buildings on Shidska street number 24 and Boris Sarafov street number 1, who complained to our editorial office, expect the Municipality of Gjorche Petrov to finally carry out extermination until, as they say, "they have eaten the rats".

 There have been rats in the neighborhood for more than two or three years. Some of the neighbors have seen them during the day, but they go out mostly at night. The only difference from two or three years ago is that now they are bigger, almost as big as cats. Previously, we saw when services passed by and threw cubes for extermination into the manholes, but they have not come for a long time. Evidence of this is also the manholes that are located in the grassy areas right next to the buildings, they are overgrown with grass and flowers, which is a sign that they have not been open for several years for sure. And cockroaches are boiling, some of the entrances collected money to spray themselves, inside the entrances, in the basements and from outside next to the buildings and under the balconies - residents from Gjorche Petrov say.

The Municipality claims that extermination is carried out twice a year and that the last one was carried out two months ago.

According to the program and legal obligations, the Municipality of Gjorche Petrov carried out pest control on 31.03.2023, that is, it is carried out twice a year - the Municipality responds.

From there, they add that the next extermination is planned to be carried out in the last quarter of the year, that is, in September, when, as they say, a tender for these needs is legally announced.

 Pest control will also be carried out on the new municipal building, which will be officially put into use in the next period - announced Gjorce.

However, the local self-government does not specify how many shafts were covered by the extermination, and they do not answer whether they know about this problem that the citizens are facing, how they should act in this case and who to contact.

There is also no answer as to whether the program for disinfection, disinsection and deratization of the Municipality of Gjorce Petrov for 2023 has been adopted, because among the 15 or so programs published on the municipal web portal for various activities of the local government for this year, the one for deratization there is none. Which means – either someone missed to publish it or it wasn't brought. The last set Program for this activity is for 2022, which states that last year it was planned to treat 2.500 shafts against rodents, but not whether it will be carried out once or twice a year.

Even among the news through which the Municipality informs its residents about the activities that are of their interest, there is no announcement or announcement about the extermination carried out at the end of March. In the media reports, it was last reported about pest control in the Municipality of Gjorce Petrov in 2018.