Ferndale Has a Massive Rat Infestation

Ferndale — This city used to be a clean, thriving community full of friendly neighbors. Property values skyrocketed as developers were priced out of Royal Oak. Downtown had thriving dance clubs, great bars, and restaurants with positive vibes where everyone felt safe and comfortable, which is how it earned the moniker “Fabulous Ferndale.”

Fast-forward to 2026: The streets are littered with trash. Abandoned buildings are everywhere, and rats have taken over the community. I don’t mean that figuratively, I mean actual rats. And they are massive.

The Facebook group “Ferndale Rat Patrol” is up to 9,200 members. It’s led by newly elected city council woman Laura Mikulski. She used her “rat knowledge” as a platform when running for City Council. But other than managing the content within the online group, she’s brought no city-wide plans to help with the growing rat population.

Back in 2022, the Detroit Free Press ran a story on her rat-killing “success,” and Channel 7 did a story last year featuring her as well. But any resident will tell you that the rat problem gets worse and worse. Female rats have roughly 60 babies per year—sixty!

The group frowns upon poison, but some of the other methods encouraged are laughable at a city-wide level. Owl boxes, old-school snap traps, and filling burrows with dry ice would hardly lower the population.

Drowning rats is not considered humane, even though the insufferable creatures are eating the wiring in cars. They eat dog poop year-round, and in the summer, it’s virtually impossible to grow tomatoes.

Putting uncovered trash out days early becomes a buffet for these filthy vermin, who burrow into bags left on the street overnight. If you use a plastic bin, they are likely to gnaw through to access your garbage.

There are no plans to distribute new garbage cans nor has there been any discussion about fining residents who put their trash out early.

You would think citizens would be lined up one after another at city council meetings to address how to handle the infestation, but that’s not the case here.

Instead, the only priorities of the local activists are keeping out ICE and making sure no new businesses come to town unless they are a coffee shop or dispensary.

Week after week, however, white people show up whining to city council that our police force must not comply and no ICE detention centers are to be allowed in Ferndale.

A detention center in Ferndale? How? Where? There isn’t a single building in Ferndale that is even large enough to house inmates, for that matter.

For months Ferndaliens cried about city officials not issuing a formal statement condemning ICE. Finally on Jan. 27, Mayor Raylon Leaks-May issued a statement saying that the Ferndale Police Department “does not have a Memorandum of Understanding with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and does not participate in the federal government Task Force Model Program.”

But that wasn’t enough.

Finally on March 9, an official city ordinance was issued after the same people continued warning about the dangers of “Trump’s Frozen Water Army” to city council. Comically, the city ordinance cannot override federal law—but I digress.

The second-most important issue for Ferndale residents is making sure buildings stay abandoned. Rosie O’Gradys,. which sat in the heart of downtown, has been empty since Covid.

Across Woodward sits an abandoned Tim Hortons which has also been vacant since Covid. This property has a buyer, but the residents of Ferndale aren’t having it.

Miami-based El Car Wash sent out flyers last week inviting neighbors to a neighborhood meeting at the car dealership just up the road. Of course, some locals organized a protest. This car wash has jumped through every hoop imaginable to try and build since the concept was first presented in 2023, but that hasn’t been enough.

The lack of urgency on issues that truly matter for all members of Ferndale is striking. While the community continues to cry over imaginary political slop, they should at least be grateful that new businesses actually want to come to town and could maybe organize a city-wide cleanup event or two.

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t fit the city narrative. Rats.