Toulouse rehabilitates a method used by the Romans, using ferrets to hunt rats.
A new test made it possible to dislodge about forty rats in half an hour in the district of Empalot.
A natural and less polluting method that could be adopted outdoors more regularly from next year.
“They cross the street, it's a real scourge. Some rats even get into cars from below and cause damage, ”comments this resident of the Empalot district in Toulouse. This Wednesday morning, she was present near Place Daste to attend the new method deployed by the town hall to ratify its streets using ferrets.
Experienced for a month as an alternative to polluting chemicals, it has once again proved its worth in record time.
Mure and Nuit, two ferrets, smaller than their male counterparts, entered the earth galleries dug by rodents.
And in half an hour, by tracking them and scaring them, they managed to get out about forty rats that were holed up there.
Once flushed out, they were caught on their release by Alexandre Raynal, a Gers ferret breeder who specialized in natural rat control.
He has trained about fifteen of his charges to dive underground and only come back when no more pests are in the area.
Ancestral method
“It's a method that has been around for a long time. The ferret was domesticated after the dog and the cat. In Roman times, they were used in ships against rats, but also to hunt rabbits. For ten years or so, it has been used again in the United States, and more recently in France, ”explains the master of ferrets, which have been tireless.
Employees for a day that Françoise Ampoulange, the municipal councilor for Animals in the city, finds particularly effective. “It's more ecological, because you should also know that the smell of the ferret left in the burrow will prevent the rats from recolonizing it for a certain time. For the moment we are doing tests, but it is very likely that we will use this method in outdoor places. Rodenticides will continue to be used in closed places, where you cannot let go of a ferret, ”says the elected official.
She sees other advantages to this device, in particular that of not leaving the corpses of rodents in place, whereas when they ingest rat poison, they will die in places that are sometimes inaccessible.
With the method developed by Alexandre Raynal, they are locked in a barrel, inside which they are euthanized with carbon dioxide, "which makes it possible to avoid animal suffering", assures the breeder.
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Animals
Toulouse
20 minutes video
Rats
Unsanitary
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