WAR ON RATS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 269, 9 August 1943, Page 4

WAR ON RATS

Pests Reported Getting Out Of Hand His intention to ask the Wellington City Council to enforce strictly its bylaw requiring householders to keep all refuse bins covered was announced on baturdav by the chairman of the councils health committee, Cr. R. 11. Nimmo, who said reports indicated that rats were getting out of hand in the city area. "Though any number of excuses may be advanced, this city has to be cleaned up, last few weeks there had been three cases of babies being bitten while asleep; one was a Wellington case, the others being in Auckland. Those cases had brought the menace home to some P6 The' last anti-rat drive, he said, bad been brought to a etop when the available poison stocks were used up and traps were not obtainable, but a further, stock of the poison, proved by investigation to be most effective and yet not dangerous to humans if used with care—barium carbonate—had been obtained, and breakback traps would again be on the market in a week or two. .“In the meantime, pending preparation of poison baits ou a big scale and the distribution of traps from the manufacturers the most effective course that can be taken by citizens is to clean up their premises and homes and P ut foo<ls , t , u ?p and refuse out of the reach of lats, he added. “To leave refuse bins uncovered is not merely an offence against city bylaws; it is an offence against public health and decency in that it is a direct encouragement of rat breeding'* Mr. Nimmo said that other recommendations would also be made ,y the committee to the council toward a g eral clean-up and to prevent more effectively the landing of ship rats on the waterfront.