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68
Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919.
The Borough Council issues an advisory leaflet on the eradication
of rats and mice, and rat poisons may be purchased from the Public
Health Department. Upon request, the Council sends an employee,
who lays poison baits at infested premises on three separate occasions,
for the sum of ten shillings. The services of a firm of professional
rat catchers are engaged to deal with any specially infested areas.
Bug Infestation of Houses.
On the 9th May, 1934, Circular 1395 was issued by the Ministry
of Health, together with a memorandum, and the Council were
requested to take into immediate consideration the question of securing
disinfestation wherever the nuisance was found to occur.
The Memorandum sets out in full the life history of the bed-bug
and also deals with the difficult problem of disinfestation.
The Ministry state that Hydrogen Cyanide is the only certain
method of killing the bed-bug. This gas will usually penetrate all
ordinary hiding places and kill both bed-bugs and their eggs. Fumigation
of homes and furniture by this gas, although effective, is of
course fraught with danger, both to the operator and to those in
adjacent dwellings.
The Public Health Committee agreed that for routine cases the
existing scheme in operation in the Borough should continue. Briefly,
this scheme is as follows:—
On receipt of information of premises being infested with bugs
(a) A Sanitary Inspector visits in order to satisfy himself as
to the dilapidation or otherwise of the structure of the premises
which may call for the removal of the architraves, etc., and also
to decide if it is necessary for bedding, etc., to be removed and
disinfested. No charge is made for such disinfestation.
(b) Tins of Insecticide, suitably labelled, and hand sprayers,
purchased by the Public Health Department, are retailed to
tenants. The charges are remitted in special cases of poverty, etc.,
at the discretion of the Medical Officer of Health. The object
aimed at is to secure the co-operation of the occupiers of the
infested rooms, as, without this, the task of ridding premises of
bugs is unlikely to be successful. During the year 318 tins of
Insecticide and 88 hand sprayers were issued.