View report page

12
Verminous Houses.-
Five houses were found to be verminous during the year:
Council Houses 0
Other Houses 5
All these houses were fumigated by the use of Hydrogen Cyanide gas.
In twenty.one cases the furniture of tenants was fumigated by
Hydrogen Cyanide gas before it was allowed to be installed in the
Council Houses provided for their occupation.
Number of inspections and visits, 23.
Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919.
The destruction of rats continues to take up a considerable amount
of time and it is carried on throughout the year. The rat population
must be gradually decreasing as building operations encroach upon farm
land and private estates, but with such a large area of forest it is difficult
to take other than palliative measures to exterminate these pests. There
are a few places in the district where it seems impossible to get rid of
all the rats but in farms a very considerable reduction has been made;
and as much help as possible is given to keep the rats from unduly
increasing. There is one refuse dump in the district and the contractors
who dump on this site engage a firm who specialize in rat destruction
to deal with the problem. I understand that considerable progress
continues to be made.
The methods used for rat destruction have not been changed,
they are:—
1. Gassing by a Cyano Gas Pump.
2. Baiting with Red Squill.
These methods continue to give satisfactory results.
Baiting is done where it is dangerous to use the Gas Pump and
the results obtained are, on the whole, very good.
During Rat Week posters were exhibited in prominent places
throughout the district calling the attention of everyone to the importance
of destroying rats and intimating that help and advice can be obtained
on application to the Public Health Department. The usual slide was
also shown at the Loughton Cinema.