Rat elimination campaign launched in Victoria |10 March 2020

Ms Tregarthen, flanked by Mayor Andre and Ms Roucou, during the press conference yesterday (Photo: Jude Morel)

Pest collection company PESTEA, with the support of the office of the Mayor of Victoria, the Land Waste Management Agency (LWMA) and the Ministry of Health, has launched a Rodent Awareness Week aimed at controlling rats in Victoria.

Speaking to the press at the Mayor’s Office yesterday morning in the presence of the Mayor, David Andre, and Brigitte Roucou from LWMA, the sales and marketing manager of PESTEA, Lynn Tregarthen, said the campaign is to gather and compile evidence on the population of rats in Victoria for recommendations by the concerned authorities while also raising awareness on threats they pose to public health.

One hundred live cages, per one rat, will be placed at strategic locations and hot spots around Victoria during the one week and that will be mainly at the Gran Kaz, Victoria Market, Marine Charter, Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) bus stand, Unity House around Butcher’s Grill, the Camion Hall among other places.

The live cages, which will number up to ten at certain locations, will be placed as from 5pm and collected at 5am the following day. Pest supervisor at PESTEA, Doreena Nicette, who was also present at the press briefing, will be responsible for supervising the placements and collection of the live cages.

Ms Tregarthen said that the Rodent Awareness Week is being fully funded by PESTEA at a cost of R20,000 to R25,000.

She further said that apart from hosting the awareness initiative, PESTEA will also organise art, poetry, essay and rat eradication project competitions for schools.

“We need to address the rodent problem in Victoria before it becomes into a health issue,” Ms Tregarthen said, noting that the alarm bell on the rat issue in Victoria came from the contracting businesses.

“Rodents can be anywhere in nature but they come into an area where there is food that is readily available and they normally come out mainly at night. But we are spotting them now occasionally during the day in Victoria and that is the scary part because if they are coming out during the day it means that we have a huge problem,” she said, noting from one rat spotted, there are easily tens of thousands rats behind it.

Ms Tregarthen said that coconut is being used as baits in the live cages and that the rats caught will be destroyed by drowning as per normally instructed to pest control companies.

She stated that other methods like rat poison or glue are not being used so as to prevent fatalities to other domestic or stray animals.

She noted it would be nice to see companies allocating some of their CSR funds towards the rodent control initiative as it will have a positive impact on the hygiene side of Victoria while laws are implemented to sustain the hygiene level. She added that if the programme is successful, it will be implemented at district level.

For his part, Mr Andre said that his office is giving its full support to PESTEA on its rodent elimination initiative as he wants Victoria to be a place as clean as possible with a high level if hygiene.

“I would like to call on everyone who come to Victoria or conduct activities in Victoria and also residents of the eight boundary districts, to support this project which will help the government in getting the pest under control,” Mr Andre said, noting that rats in Victoria is very alarming.

He called on people to dispose of their waste in the appropriate manner.

Rats are carriers of many diseases and in Seychelles the most common is leptospirosis which has caused many fatalities over the years.

The Rodent Awareness Week ends on March 16, 2020.

Patrick Joubert