The number of rats in cities is increasing rapidly, especially now that poison can no longer be used to control them. There are also many complaints about rat nuisance in some neighborhoods in Haarlem. But what can you do about it and how can you prevent nuisance? Is a cat as a pet the solution? And what kind of animals are rats anyway? Five questions and answers.
We hear more and more complaints about rat nuisance. Is the nuisance really increasing?
According to Richard, employee of Van der Velden Pest Control, that is absolutely the case. “In 2017, the use of poison as a pesticide was already banned in outdoor areas, since January 1 of this year, poison is no longer allowed at all. Only in very exceptional cases are certified companies like us allowed to use poison.”
“This has made the fight against the rat more difficult,” he admits. “And they multiply very quickly. Give a couple of rats a year and you just have 600.”
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Are rats really sickening pests?
The answer depends on the questioned. According to the GGD, rats can certainly transmit certain germs. It mainly concerns Weil’s disease, but also the hantavirus. Infection comes through contact with live or dead animals or their faeces.
Ask the residents of houses where rats have entered and it turns out that they can really haunt. Especially at night, the rodents run through cavity walls and into the crawl spaces in the ceilings with a lot of noise. Not good for a night’s sleep and that is of course not good for your health.
“Had this been a wild rat, it would have bitten my arm off by now. But tame rats are smart and social animals”
If you put the question to Marc Hanou from Haarlem-Noord as a member of parliament for the Party for the Animals, you will hear a completely different story. He’s a bit bothered by one previous article on rat nuisance in his neighborhood. “Sewer journalism”, jokes Hanou.
“But seriously: those animals really don’t bother me. I assume that there are more rats in our city than people in Haarlem. Yes, I have seen a rat sitting at a sewer well. But yes: I have also sometimes seen a cat in the backyard. And we sometimes see a mouse walking in the living room. Then we wave.”
Rat on the street in Haarlem-Noord – local resident
Rats are intelligent and social animals, you sometimes hear. Is that correct?
According to Ernst Kamstra of Stichting Denk Haarlem, they are at least social. Rodents are cared for in their shelter on the Van Oosten de Bruijnstraat. Currently, this includes a large group of tame rats, which were found in a home in Germany. Kamstra: “There were really hundreds of animals there and they were in bad shape. We took in 78, but that has now become 98.”
Kamstra adds that there is a big difference between domestic rats and animals living in the wild. He picks up a ‘German asylum seeker’, who remains calmly on his arm. “Had this been a wild rat, it would have bitten my arm off by now. But tame rats are smart and social animals. Their mutual behavior is actually the same as wild rats, but the tame variant accepts humans as a partner.”
Colleague Babet Almer adds: “They are really smart. In certain countries, rats are even trained to detect land mines. Because they are so light, the mine does not go off when they walk over it.”
“Nature is just nature and you can’t always bend it to your will. I think ‘vermin’ is quite a difficult term”
How do you prevent and control rats now that no poison can be used?
Pest exterminator Richard explains that in any case you should not leave food lying around. “Of course they come to that. So make sure you have closed garbage cans and don’t feed the birds too enthusiastically, because rats also love that food.”
“If our help is called in, we first check whether there are technical defects in a home, such as cracks and cracks. That must first be repaired to keep the animals out. They can really cause serious damage to your foundation, for example. They are also likes in crawl spaces, especially when it’s cold. To get the animals away, we use different types of traps.”
Marc Hanou of the Party for the Animals: “Prevent them getting to food. Where there are people, there are rats. Nature is just nature and you can’t always bend it to your will. I think ‘vermin’ is fine by the way a difficult term.”
“An older, well-fed cat is probably too lazy for it”
And finally the key question: does it help if you get a cat?
That solution was suggested by many people on social media. “I have three cats and they kill rats,” we read, for example.
Richard from the pest control service does not think that a cat is the solution: “Perhaps a young cat has the energy to take down a small rat. But an older, well-fed cat is probably too lazy for it. Rats can also be quite aggressive and if you corner them they sometimes jump up to five feet to get away.”
A black and white cat with a crumpled tail walks up to Stichting Denk. Ernst Kamstra points to her and says: “That’s Druppel. Afraid of water, but she’s our own ‘pest control employee’ here. Because we have a lot of food, mice come to it. Dropple delivers them neatly to us.” Still a bit crazy. Cat Dropp has no interest whatsoever in the rats in the shelter.
Marc Hanou of the Party for the Animals does not think cats are the best solution either, but for a completely different reason. If you get a cat, at least put a bell on the animal. It may not be very useful for catching rats, but it will warn the birds. A bell ensures a fairer playing field. Did you know they kill millions of birds every year?”
No, we didn’t know that. But that is perhaps a matter for another ‘question and answer’.
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