This Rancho Murieta Community Services District maintains dams and levees within the community of Rancho Murieta.  In doing so, the District must ensure these facilities are maintained to function as they were designed and hold back water.  This includes making sure the community’s residents do not drive 4wd and other vehicles on the dams and to not allow rodents to create seepage pathways that could erode and damage them.

Rodent control or eradication is essential in preserving a well-maintained dam. If left uncontrolled, rodent burrows can hollow out and weaken embankments and spillways, increasing the risk of slides, seepage, and failure.  In our continuing commitment to the well being of the Community and the resources we manage, Rancho Murieta Community Services District contracts with a service that places bait boxes per California regulations on the downstream sides of the dams.  The intent of the bait boxes is to allow area rodents to enter the box, collect bait, take it back to their burrow to feed, and die within their burrow.  From what we’re told they typically do not feed out in the open and die out in the open where other animals may eat them. Please do not tamper with these boxes. 

For more information, please visit:

https://damsafety.org/dam-owners/rodent-control

Rodents are also a major carrier of fleas and ticks which may spread to your pets and carry diseases.

https://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/direct.html