Health Hygiene & Sanitation

Lesson 19 : Rodent Control

Introduction

• Rats and mice are part of man's environment. Often their numbers exceed human population.
• A female rat can have 100 offspring each year.
• By living in close proximity to man, they cause substantial economic loss
• By damaging buildings,
• By consuming and contaminating foodstuffs and other commodities
• By acting as sources or reservoirs of some important communicable diseases such as plague and typhus fever.
• It implies therefore, that destruction of rats and elimination of their habitat is an important environmental health measure.