Give rats a taste of green power

WITH reference to “Scourge of rats eats into municipal cash” (April 13), it is my understanding that rats cannot be eradicated by baits and poison alone, because they compensate by overbreeding when the population diminishes.

Rats rely on habitat, water and food resources, and removing any one of these will eventually eradicate the rat population in that area.

In informal settlements and townships, removing the habitat or water resources is difficult. However, food waste can be dealt with effectively by composting. Not open, static piles of compost, but by using vessel composters in a contained, hygienic and odourless manner that rats cannot get at and are not attracted to.

This would be a cost-effective way for municipalities to deal with this crisis without further damaging the environment with poisons. — Alan Murchison, by e-mail