The deratizers soon reduced to the

Emmanuelle Ducros 08h45, 01 June 2023

An alert launched by the professionals of the control of pests, who rid the premises of cockroaches, bed bugs and especially rodents ... They risk losing an essential weapon in the fight against rats.

The European Commission, on the recommendation of ECHA, the European health agency, could in the short term, that is to say perhaps in September, ban the use of rodenticide products in enclosed spaces. Companies, factories, residential buildings, hospitals, etc.

Rodenticides means substances that kill rats, we are no longer talking about death to rats with arsenic, of course, but several products, such as anticoagulants, which come in the form of pastes appetizing for rodents, and which have the same effect as their ancestor, the poisoned grain.

Why ban?

Obviously because these products no longer have the wind in their sails, even if their dissemination is almost impossible. There are safety concerns, they can potentially kill other animals, such as squirrels, although this is rare, or poison cats and raptors that hunt contaminated rats. That said, the basis of the reflection is quite funny: it is a single study conducted by an old-fashioned manufacturer. Basically, since it works without chemistry, with a good old mechanical means, we might as well be content with it.

All this deserves a real analysis of benefit and risk: rats are a real public health problem, by the bacteria they carry, salmonella, etc. and by the serious diseases they can spread, such as leptospirosis. They also cause fires, damage to buildings.

Pest control professionals do not agree with the ban.

They are measured in their protest. They do not absolutely want to use these rodenticide products. But according to them, it is absurd to ban them completely. They need an arsenal, a range of solutions, much like doctors need many kinds of drugs.

Because the swatts, it is difficult to install and even more difficult to raise in false ceilings, electrical ducts ... And then, rats dead in the open, in hospitals, schools, agri-food industries, that we will not necessarily see in the minute... The health problems are well understood. It requires daily readings and there is no one to do them. Pest control is a profession, you have to be patented for it.

Beyond that, the deratizers highlight a real cultural issue.

And it becomes fascinating, because it speaks of our relationship to hygiene, to health safety. They explain that Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands for example, have acquired a culture of prevention against rodents and beyond, all these invasive animals. We install devices to prevent rats from entering, we do frequent audits ... You have no problem having the professionals' van parked in front of your establishment: it's a way to tell customers that you protect yourself from infestations, that you protect them... In France, they explain, we are still in a culture of shame and secrecy. If the ratter is there, it is because there are already rats. Nor is there a collective approach to prevention. It is a whole revolution that should be made and which would make it less necessary to resort to rat death.