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During the year a comprehensive treatment for the destruction
of rats in the sewers throughout the Borough was carried out in
conjunction with the Borough Engineer and Surveyor's Department.
Owing to shortage of manpower it was found to be impossible
to carry out the treatment as a whole so the Borough was divided
into five self-contained areas corresponding to the connections of
the Council's sewers with the West Middlesex Trunk Sewer.
The first treatment was commenced on July 1st, 1947, with
three squads of men, each consisting of one man loaned by the
Divisional Rodent Officer to act as recorder and baiter with two
men from the Sewers Section of the Borough Surveyor's Department.
3,189 Manholes were baited of which number 495 or 15.52%
were found to be rat infested and were poison baited with biscuit
rusk and zinc phosphide.
It was necessary to treat 758 manholes during the second
treatment and 89, or 2.79% of the whole number originally treated,
were found to be still infested and were poison baited with bread
mash and arsenious oxide.
The whole treatment took three months and four days to
complete and the result appears to be entirely satisfactory as the
rat infested manholes were reduced from 495 in the first treatment
to 89 in the second and from observations of some of the poison
baiting in the second treatment it was evident that the rat population
in the sewers if not entirely eradicated has been reduced
to a minimum.