They may look cute, but plagues of super-rats growing immune to normal pest-control measures are surging through cities and their surrounds.
Durban - Across many cities, residents face what some call a plague of super-rats.
The term is used around the world to describe rats that have become bolder and have developed a degree of resistance to the poisons normally used to kill them.
These armies of rats have not just become a problem in urban areas across South Africa: they are overrunning cities like Paris, New York and Sydney.
What is driving them is the easy availability of food.
“And it is high-protein stuff so these guys are getting big and it’s almost like natural selection on steroids,” said rat expert Diederik van ’t Hof.
Ian van Wyngaard of the company Verminator told the Independent on Saturday that the rat population in Durban was becoming a significant issue, causing damage to property, spreading diseases, and posing a threat to public health.
“There has been a decrease in good sanitation maintenance in KZN,” he said.
“Durban is experiencing rapid urbanisation (with) increased chances for rats to coexist in close proximity with humans. Rats are being exposed to increased amounts of food and water, which may contribute to the spread of diseases through cross-contamination.
“Rats are drawn to all sources of food and water, making it crucial to maintain cleanliness in the public sewers and so on.”
Factors contributing to the trend of rats reportedly growing in size, strength, and resistance to preventive measures include an increase in the availability of food, Van Wyngaard said.
eThekwini Municipality spokeswoman Lindiwe Khuzwayo said the city was not aware of an increase of cases reported of rodent infestation.
“However, it should be noted that some residents would most likely contact a pest control company for infestations in private residences.
“When such cases are reported or noted, officials from the relevant unit are sent to investigate and report back findings for proper measures to be initiated.”
She said the areas that usually had this issue were those found to be surrounded by illegal dumps, lacking proper sanitation and general hygiene practices.
“Our vector control section, when alerted, will set traps near the affected spots in an effort to rid the area of the pests.”
In Johannesburg, residents are fighting back with new initiatives that they hope will get the city’s rat problem under control. One suburb notorious for rats is Alexandra where, through the years, there have been several efforts to eradicate the pests, but so far nothing has worked.
Since the beginning of the year, 35 rat catchers recruited from the community have been heading out into the township to set traps for the rodents.
The initiative is known as the Integrated Rodent Control Project and so far it has been a success. The 35 “ambassadors” began setting out traps in February and they have eradicated 6 000 rats around several schools in the area. Their aim is to catch 12 000 rats by the end of the year.
“There has been an interest in that if this project goes well, they will take it to other regions in Johannesburg,” said Ephraim Pooe, of the City of Joburg.
The secret of their success, according to the supervisor of the project and pest controller Arthur Jacobs, is the use of vanilla essence to draw the rats to the traps.
If that doesn’t work, Jacobs said, Old Brown Sherry had been known to work too.
According to Jacobs, the community initiative does not use poison, meaning the rats don’t develop any resistance to the toxins. Both Jacobs and Van ’t Hof said they had noticed rats developing poison resistance.
“The poison immunity does happen, but I think that people are confusing it with bait shyness,” said Van ’t Hof, who explained that ever suspicious rats sometimes worked out if something was poisonous.
Several years ago Van ’t Hof and a group of entrepreneurs developed a rat trap they believed would go a long way in curbing South Africa’s rat plague.
Called the Hamelin trap, its action was similar to a swing-top dustbin lid. This lid is placed flush with the ground and when a rat walks over it, its weight causes the door to open and the rat falls into a bucket below.
In 2018 the creators of the Hamelin had a competition with the Joburg City Council to see who would catch the most rats. The place chosen for the competition was the Msawawa informal settlement, near Honeydew.
The Hamelin won, when after two weeks they had collected 81 rats to the council’s 25.
But the Hamelin project never got off the ground.
Van ’t Hof said that with a network of Hamelin traps spread across Joburg they could possibly collect 20 000 rats a night. This would create another problem which the inventors are looking at solving. The plan is to take all the rat carcasses and turn them into fertiliser.
“Rats have everything needed for good fertiliser, and this system would feed the rats back into the ecosystem,” explained Abel Mukwevho, the director of Entrepovate.
The process would involve freezing the rat carcasses to get rid of any diseases then put them through a machine that would first dry them out and then pulverise them into pellets.
But while new ways are being found to catch and eradicate these super-rats, pest controllers across the world know that they can’t be totally defeated.
“The actual solution to this is to take several steps back and take their food and water away. It is a hygiene thing and with proper hygiene you won’t see rats,” said Van ’t Hof. “You will never run out of rats, but you can get them under control.”
The Independent on Saturday