Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan today announced the launch of the Cross-sectoral Territory-wide Anti-rodent Action and inspected the anti-rodent work at Tai Shing Street Market in Wong Tai Sin.

Accompanied by representatives of the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department, Leisure & Cultural Services Department and Housing Department, Mr Tse visited the market to learn more about the rodent prevention and control measures carried out by the departments.

He told the media that the rodent problem in the city is a major concern and the Government has been working hard to explore more effective means to tackle it.

“In this place, Tai Shing Street Market, if we kept using our old anti-rodent measures, like rodent traps or cages in a conventional manner, on average we could only catch 4.5 rodents per month.

“We tried a new method. First, we placed rodent traps and cages in the nighttime, at midnight and we found that the number of rodents caught doubled.

“After that, we tried alcohol traps in this market and the number of rodents caught further doubled.

“Since the end of November, we tried using glue traps in this market. In the first three weeks, we caught over 380 rodents.

“Compared with the old methods, the new equipment and approach are certainly more effective. Therefore, we are prepared to ask other places to adopt similar methods to catch rodents.”

Under the newly launched anti-rodent action, relevant government departments will adopt targeted rodent prevention and control strategies and set up internal review teams to monitor their anti-rodent work, with a view to raising the overall effectiveness.

The Government will also work together with different sectors of the community to implement various measures to control the rodent problem.

Mr Tse added that the Environment & Ecology Bureau will set up a thematic homepage to provide the public with useful information on rodent prevention and control.