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51. RAT REPRESSION.
No extra special activities were undertaken during Rat Week, except the
exhibition of posters directing attention to the matter and advising affected householders
what steps to take.
The extensive propaganda which has taken place in past years has taught the
general public to give notice to this department so soon as any evidence of rat
infestation is found.
During the year, there were 101 applications for the free supply of raticides,
and 132 visits were paid by the sanitary inspectors to infested premises.
52. MOSQUITOES.
The prevalence of mosquitoes in Barking is well known for a month or two in
summer, and this matter has received the attention of the Natural History Society.
The result of the investigations which have been carried out tend to show that
the greater part of any nuisance which exists arises from mosquitoes which breed,
not down in the marshes, but in the back gardens of the houses in the town itself,
and that if persons would see that there were no collections of stagnant water left
in old cans and in other places where these mosquitoes could breed we should have
but little trouble from these irritating insects.