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31
Sewer baiting is done at the same time as neighbouring
boroughs, and the large number of dead rats collected at the
sewer outfalls show that treatments are successful.
The complaints of rodents rose from 410 to 467 (314 rats,
153 mice) but 40 rat complaints were "false alarms."
Infestations discovered by inspection, other than by complaint,
rose from 125 to 134 (84 rats and 50 mice).
From the above it will be seen that this has been a very
busy year for Rodent Control and staff have been working at
full pressure.
I do not regard the increased figures in a bad light, but
rather it tends to show that the more that can be found from the
enormous relatively untouched pool that exists, the less likely
it is that the total population can ever increase, but will be
perhaps slowly but remorselessly whittled down to nonentity.
I am including two photos which show how an adult male
rat had stored his food in a manhole taking the drainage of 14
houses.
Drain manhole showing rat's nest and food store.