Press Interpreter

7600 kg of rat poison waits for them to feed

03/16/07 -- When winter is mild, rats reproduce quickly. The Nanjing City Patriotic Health Campaign Committee Office’s (PHCCO) most recent survey indicates that the average density of Nanjing’s rats is 3.5%, already much higher than the 2% national standard. Action cannot be delayed. The PHCCO revealed to the Modern Bulletin yesterday that a campaign across the entire city to eradicate the rats has already begun and that 7600 kg of rat poison will be unleashed in every district next week.

Warm Winter Allows Rats to Reproduce Quickly

The Nanjing PHCCO’s most recent survey reveals that the average density of rats in Nanjing has reached 3.5%, with some farmers’ markets, waterways, unfinished construction sites, and other key areas reaching a rat density of 4.2%. “The nation’s standard is 2%, so we must control this problem.”

As to the reason there are so many more rats this year, Nanjing PHCCO representatives think that the warm weather has something to do with it. Warm weather speeds up the reproduction of rats and also gives them frequent activities and a nice environment.

“Sewer rats aren’t particular about their living environment, and they’re most populous in Nanjing.” The Nanjing PHCCO representative told reporters that the general survey of rodent species was about what people would imagine for a large city like Nanjing where there plenty of ideal places for rats to settle down. “Bases of walls, basements, sewers, piles of garbage, and other covert filthy places are all pretty good choices.”

More than seven tons to ‘serve’ them

To contain the rat damage and lower the rat density to below the national standard, the Nanjing PHCCO sent out an emergency notice requesting the PHCCOs in every district to actively organize Spring rodent eradication activities and to promptly begin distributing poison according to the situation as ascertained by survellience and climate conditions.

“We’ve prepared 7600 kg of rat poison and will begin to distribute it across all districts next week.” The PHCCO spokesman Lou Wenjun said that within a short time district PHCCOs would set up specific ‘baiting stations’ at the base of some buildings as required and would place some poison at entrances to sewers and rat lairs. “In the latter stages, we also want to serve a special ‘feast’ to the rats, by mixing brodifacoum* (called ‘dalong’ colloquially) with fruit and deep-fried twisted dough sticks that will entice the rats to consume it, thereby increasing the rodent death toll.

Why are the rats getting increasingly intelligent?

During interviews yesterday, many city residents expressed that this year, the intelligence of the rats has increased; no matter whether using poison or traps, nothing seems to be able to get a rat.

Experts, like Lou Wenjun, explain this strange phenomenon as follows: rats have a trait called ‘neophobia’ that gives them a short-term memory of threatening things. For example, if residents use glue boards to trap rats, once one gets away the first time, don’t even think about being able to use that same trick to catch it again. When the rat comes through again, it will steer clear of such things.

As for the eradication methods appropriate for families, Lou Wenjun suggests using physical means, such as rat cages and other traps, placing them in the most common entrance and exit areas of the rat and adopting a strategy of prevention. “This is because when families use poison to eradicate rats, they may die within the home—and because rat poison could easily be accidentally ingested by children in the home.”

[Full text]

*Brodifacoum is a deadly poison popular both as a pesticide in general and a rodenticide specifically. Brodifacoum’s mode of killing is generally dehydration, which has the added benefit of driving the rodent away in search of water. Moreover, the dried-out carcass is less noxious.

By Shao Yu

--Translated by D. Owen Young

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