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DESTRUCTION OF RATS IN COUNCIL'S SEWERS
Destruction of rats in sewers has been carried out on a systematic basis of continuous
baiting of the sewers using the poison fluoracetamide. The baiting is carried out on
a programmed basis whereby the borough is systematically dealt with area by area. Each
area is baited four times a year.
Poison baits are laid at access points throughout the sewers, of which there are
125 miles in the borough. These points comprise side entrances connected by galleries to
the sewers and ventilating shafts immediately over the sewers. There are over 2,300 of these
baiting points, but it was not possible to bait all the points at any one treatment owing to
road repairs and the presence of parked vehicles.
During the last treatment, non-poisonous test baits were laid at all accessible
access points. The "takes" were carefully checked to ascertain the absence of infestation
or the degree of infestation to each section of sewer. The results revealed a continued
decrease in the rat population throughout the system.
Sewermen of the Council and employees of contractors engaged on works of repair
to the sewers have commented on the decreasing number of rats seen in the sewers. Complaints
of surface rat infestations continued todecline and, no doubt, this is due to the continuous
treatment of the sewers together with the testing of frontage drains or sewer connections
which are tested as a matter of routine when dealing with complaints of infestation to
property at either ground floor or basement levels. In all such cases, drains if proved
defective are either repaired or renewed.