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RODENT CONTROL.
From time to time one sees and hears facetious remarks about the designation "Rodent Officer,"
coupled with an enquiry as to why the old name "rat catcher" is not good enough. Such remarks
display both ignorance of the duties of a rodent officer today and lack of appreciation of the skill and
the conscientious work necessary to reduce to and maintain at a minimum the numbers of rats and
mice.
A rodent officer does not simply set cage- or spring-traps to catch rats. First of all he must by
inspection ascertain the fact and the degree of infestation, then he must consider which of the various
methods available is likely to be most effective, in the particular circumstances, for the destruction
of the existing colony of rats. Then, knowing that rats will always return if means of access, good
nesting places and food and water are available, and will breed up to the limits of the means of subsistence,
he must ask himself where are the rats coming from?; what are they coming for (nesting,
food, water) ? ; how are they getting in ? ; is it practicable to deny access ; to eliminate harbourage ;
to make food and water unobtainable ? Many years ago I wrote, "the only way of keeping the rat
population permanently down to a minimum is to present them with a housing problem and a high
cost of living." Methods to these ends are called rat-proofing, and though it will always be true that
they provide the only permanent cure of the rat problem, it is not always practicable to apply them,
indeed at the present time it is often more difficult to do so than it was before the war, owing to scarcity
and high cost of labour and materials. Methods of rat destruction must therefore be actively and
constantly pursued, but rats, if not intelligent, are at least observant, suspicious and cautious and
they quickly learn what has proved dangerous to life, or even health, and avoid it. It is therefore
necessary to be able to employ a variety of methods of rat destruction, to choose the one most suitable
under all the circumstances and to change it when the rats have recognised the danger.
There is therefore much more in the work of the rodent officer than just rat-catching. If anyone
can find a better designation by all means let it be adopted, but rat-catcher won't do; it is hardly
less appropriate than calling an orthopaedic surgeon a bone-setter.
Mr. Carter, your Rodent Officer, has submitted a report which I have reproduced below in full
because of its special value in regard to the use of two new poisons "Warfarin" and " 1080."
It is a high tribute to Mr. Carter that the City has been allowed by the Infestation Division of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to carry out during the year four full-scale treatments of the
sewers with the deadly poison "1080." It is the first time this has been done in this country. The
results, as Mr. Carter's report shows, appear to have been highly satisfactory, there have been no
untoward results and permission has been given for the experiment to be continued for a further twelve
months.
Mr. Carter reports as follows:—
"Organisation and procedure during the year was similar to that of previous years, and in
compliance with the requirements of the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949, comprised
inspections of properties to ascertain the presence of rats and mice, treatment of any such properties
found to be infested, and periodical maintenance treatments for the destruction of rats
in sewers.
It has not been necessary to serve Statutory Notices under the Act, as occupiers and owners
of properties have readily co-operated, it being generally realised that the primary factor in
achieving the maximum results in work of this nature, was the co-ordination and application
of measures by operators whose sole concern is the destruction of rats and mice, as opposed to
haphazard and spasmodic attempts at control.