In Marseille, ferries will be recruited to help rid the city of rats as “testing phasefind anatural methodagainst rodents, Aicha Guedjali, the elected official in charge of pest control, said Friday.
The municipality wants to find solutions, considering “concern for the environmentIn a conversation with “France Presse” agency, the elected official said, detailing that these ferries will be deployed in November and December. “The trend is towards fewer chemicals“The councilor of the municipality crossed, clarifying that the rat hunters will intervene.”about fifteen sites where we are experiencing recurring issues“, especially in parks and gardens, around schools and kindergartens.
In a city of more than 870,000 residents, the city hall estimates that the rat population is at least equal to the human population. Ferrets arenatural predators of the rat“In the words of Alexandre Raynal, the breeder whose animals will be used in Marseille. the only necessary training consists of:teach them to come back or they will stay in the gallerieswhere they are sent to scare the rats andwhere they feel good“.
As has already been done in Toulouse, Limoges or even in the Paris region, in Vitry-sur-Seine and Alfortville, as well as in prisons, Alexandre Raynal, who manages 25 ferret farms with his father, will place traps at the exits. of gallery rodents, his “hunters“. “The rats run away and I catch themhe explained to AFP at the exit. The animals are then transferred to opaque containers;to reduce stressand then euthanized by gas.
Shifting in teams of two or three, the rafts, which must sleep up to 18 hours a day, can catch “at leastA hundred rats a week, according to Mr. Raynal. Mostly female ferrets are used because of their small size.
Use of ferries “a good alternative to rat poison“Both for reducing animal pain and for the environment,” says Mr. Reynal, convinced that his method.works much betterthan chemicals. In Toulouse, he estimates that 95% of the rat population targeted in the sector has disappeared four months after his intervention, where his two ferries have enabled the capture of 63 rodents. He was also asked to intervene in Vence and Montreux (Ile-de-France).
Source: Le Figaro
