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6
RAT REPRESSION.
Inspections continue to be made of City premises in an endeavour
to assist occupiers of property to comply with their liabilities under
the Rats & Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919.
The devastation caused by enemy action in the City area has undoubtedly
reduced the rat population. The Cripplegate area was, in pre-air
aid times, a very badly infested area, and hundreds of rats must have:
been destroyed by the fires there. At the same time, there is still in
other areas, severe infestation. Where there has been complete destruction
of a large area the problem has gone. Where destruction is only
partial it appears that the rat has been helped. Thus it is found that
premises, previously rat free or only subject to occasional visits by
???arauding rats, now suffer constant infestation. Buildings which have
suffered damage by fire or blast on upper floors can be included in this
category. Ratproofing in such cases is practically impossible.
The hundreds of sandbag blast walls erected throughout the area,
particularly those encased in wood and not ratproofed, provided safe and
undisturbed harbourage for rats, of which the vermin has been quick to
take advantage, and many such walls have now been replaced by brick
structure, often as a means of overcoming rat infestation. Whenever
similar substitution is possible, it is certainly advisable.
Fresh harbourage in lofts, introduced by the sandbagging of the
floors, is speedily utilised by the pest.
The advent of fire-watching has played its part in increasing the
rat problem, There is, because of this, far more indiscriminate feeding
in City buildings to-day, Again the need for leaving doors open throughout
buildings to facilitate firewatchers access to rooms also assists the
rat. There is, too, the fact that more water is available to the rat,
although experience has shown that this attraction was always easily
obtainable in most City premises before the war.
To summarise the position it can be said that in some previously
severely infested areas the problem no longer exists, that in others
the nuisance is intensified, and that, in the time of war, when not only
our foodstuffs but also our refuse and waste has a high value, the
presence of this vermin still presents a grave problem in the City area.
The Ship Rat continues to provide the chief nuisance. It is
possible that sewer rat infestation has slightly increased, due to
damaged drainage systems resulting from bombing, but no particular
manifestation of this aspect of the situation can so far be reported.
It is to be hoped that when structural reconstruction is considered
legislation will be introduced to ensure that adequate steps are taken
to construct ratproof buildings, in order that those areas, many of which
previous to destruction, were veritable 'rat-holes', may not again become
center of infestation.
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