Rats in Trouble as Lagos Launches “Buy Rats Make Money’’ Project

The Buy Rats Make Money’’ initiative by the Lagos State Government is environmental friendly and safe for humans, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Phosgard Fumigants Nig. Ltd., Oluwasegun Benson, has said.Benson, whose company is partnering with the state government in the project made the assertion on the sidelines of the flag off of the exercise at Obalende Market on Thursday. The vector control programme had no side effect on the market women, adding that evacuation of the dead rats would be done by its officials. “The scheme is environmental friendly and safe. We have distributed flyers on how the market women will go about it and how it works. “What we do is to have the fumigation when the market is closed, that is from dusk to dawn. What the market women will only come to see are dead rats. “They will not realise anything untoward, the only evidence are the dead rats which we have warned them not to pick with bare hands. They should pick them with hand gloves. “We will be on ground to evacuate the dead rats and bury them. We are not going to incinerate them but we’ll rather bury them. “Dead rats decompose to sand within six months,’’ he said. Benson said that the exercise would be done monthly around the markets so that the rats are not given room to breed until the environment was fully safe from the vectors. “The programme has to be monthly because rodents have a life cycle of a month. If we say we want it quarterly, that means what we are doing will be counterproductive.