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24
Rodent Control
Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949
Under Part 1 of the above Act the Council now has a primary
duty to ensure that, as far as is practicable, its area is kept
free from Rats and Mice. Whenever, therefore, premises are
visited for any reason, an inspection or enquiries are made by
the Sanitary Inspectors as to rodent infestation, in addition to
following up complaints of Rodents.
This accounts for the increase in the number of premises
inspected for Rats and Mice and resulted in 20 rat and 96 mice
infestations being discovered. These were mostly of a minor
character, but the early action no doubt prevented many
becoming major infestations.
Under the Act, failure by Occupiers to give notice of
infestations in "Substantial Numbers" renders them liable, on
summary conviction, to a fine of £5.
No cases were discovered which warranted legal action
being taken, and I feel that the continuance of the present
drive will bring greater co-operation from the public towards
Rodent Control.
The number of complaints (440) is less than in 1950 (451),
but 550 premises were treated as against 453 in 1950 because
of the infestations "discovered".
No "ship" (Black) rat infestation has been found in the
Borough.
Rat infestations have decreased from 404 to 324.
Mice infestations have increased from 137 to 226.
The number of mice infestations in large buildings have
increased. Individually this type of treatment presents greater
difficulty than the more straightforward rat infestations.
Frequently rat infestations have come from defective
drainage. To enable more efficient smoke testing of drains, a
"long distance" drain stopper, specially designed in the
Department, now makes it possible to test many drain
connections to sewers which could not otherwise be tested
because the sewer was less than three feet in diameter.
The use of this "stopper" also reduced the need to employ
sewermen in some other cases.
Notwithstanding this, sewermen have had to be used on
many more occasions than hitherto, and this accounts for the
increase in the charges made by the Borough Engineer to
Rodent Control.
The sewer system has been poison-baited twice during 1951
by the Borough Engineer's Department in accordance with the
requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.