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76
Mistaken beliefs regarding Rodent Control.
During recent months I have heard it suggested, in otherwise wellinformed
quarters, that rodent control and the appointment of rodent
operatives were war-time measures, and that the need for them ceased when
the war ended. That belief may be due to the fact that the first organised
treatment of sewers in London was carried out in 1942 by the then rodent
control central authority (Ministry of Food) in order to conserve the
nation's food supply; but it should be realised that rodent control is as
much a peace-time as a war-time need, at least until we have a much better
main drainage system than we have now.
Those who have recently had the opportunity of inspecting a large road
subsidence in the Borough have had impressed on them the widespread
rat infestation there and the apparent failure of those responsible for rodent
control. It should be realised, however, that the infestation was due almost
entirely to serious defects in the main drainage system, through which the
sewer rats were able to escape and gain entrance to dwellings ; and that no
rat, however strong in the jaw, can "gnaw through" a properly constructed
sewer. In other words, the rats are the result—and not the cause—of the
defective sewers.
Local Sources of Infestation.
That rat infestation is nothing new in Leyton may be gathered from this
extract from a Report I submitted to the Public Health Committee in 1931.
"There is abundant evidence of the presence of rats in the area
comprising the sites occupied by the Ive Farm Allotments, the shoot on
the permanent Isolation Hospital site, the temporary Isolation Hospital,
the Destructor and Sewage Works and the Goods Yards of the
L. & N.E. Railway.
" I am informed that rats have always been very prevalent in that
area, and that they are not nearly so prevalent now as they used to be.
" With the exception of the railway sidings, all the premises
mentioned above are the property of this Council and are situated
within this Borough. The conditions obtaining in that large area are
conducive to the propagation and sustenance of rats once they have
become established there. In fact they are so safely hidden away and so
well provided for that they seem loath to move to other quarters—
at least I can imagine no more valid reason for the relative freedom from
rats of dwellings in the vicinity.
"With regard to the possibility of taking steps to free the whole
area from rats, it is a tremendously difficult problem which can be
appreciated only by those who have seen the nature of the infestation,
especially in the overgrown waste ground lying between the sewage
works and the railway sidings. Even if drastic and concerted action
were taken by this and neighbouring Local Authorities, I doubt if we
should succeed in achieving the object. Nevertheless, most of the
properties mentioned above belong to this Council, and the Rats and
Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919 requires occupiers of premises and land to
prevent them from becoming infested."