Rats are an unfortunate and all too common presence in Belize City, especially in overgrown areas with a lot of trash. Rats are pests and can spread garbage, destroy property and can carry deadly diseases, also known as the story of Belize City. So, exterminator and UDP friend Ryan Swift, of Ryan Swift Pest Control has partnered with the City Council, the Public Health Bureau and a few Ministers to try and reduce the City's rat population. They have initiated a project aimed at cleaning up the yards and lots of residents in order to give the rodents less food and less shelters. We spoke to Swift and Senior Public Health Inspector Mark Bernard about the project…
Mark Bernard - Senior Public Health Inspector
“We are concerned about high population of rodents because of the public health impact. Rodents bite people, they can come in contact with people and you can die from a rat bite, it’s not something trivial that you take lightly; you can die from a rat bite. So they also contaminate food, people eat food they can get sick and they can also die depending on what disease they get from the rodent and of course when you hear about rodent first thing come to mind in modern day now is leptospirosis. If you go back a couple centuries ago the plague would have been the first thing you would have heard with association with rodents. So we’re concerned because of course we have a surveillance system and we are seeing increased number of rat bite and that is of concern to us and so we are enthusiastic about this project. We are willing to participate because it will achieve one of our objectives in terms of controlling the rodent population and also it cannot be done in isolation without environmental sanitation, meaning the proper management of refuge, the proper cutting of yards and those kinds of things.â€
Alex Courtenay
“Keeping your yard clean and making sure there is not excess garbage or anything like that is very important in terms of controlling a rat population and making sure there is nowhere for them to live. Explain to us how public education is important in this case, in keeping down the rat population.â€
Mark Bernard
“Okay basically you look at any agency that operates in Belize; none of us can come into your home and clean it on a daily basis. You as the individual householder have to understand the importance of this and you have to take it as your responsibility to have a garbage receptacle that is properly maintained, covered and to make sure your garbage is put in the proper place right away. The purpose of a clean-up campaign when we have these campaigns is to give you an opportunity to start afresh, it’s not for us to come back next 2 weeks and find you back in that same condition, that means you haven’t learned anything. It’s to help you get your premised under control and then we expect that you will do your part to keep it that way.â€
Alex Courtenay
“In respect to the project itself, what is the main problem and how are you guys looking to solve that problem?â€
Ryan Swift - Pest Control
“The main problem that I see within this area is that refuse collection, storage and disposal and over grown properties. I gave my recommendation with respect to the community itself, where we go, house to house and neighbour to neighbour where the neighbours participate in order for this to materialise. That is the bottom line, it has to be a community effort, it cannot be done in isolation, it cannot be done where you just put rat baits and so forth, that is just a temporary solution. You have to deal with sanitation, a lot of, a lot of shelter, a lot of rats.â€
The project started on Wilson Street, and will attempt to educate residents throughout the city on the importance of keeping their yards clean.
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