The city of Leuven has launched a new project to control rats in sewers. It uses innovative devices to kill rats pain-free. Six devices were installed in the sewers around the Grand Place on Wednesday.
The area surrounding the Grand Place in Leuven is home to an estimated 1,000–2,000 rats. Until now, the city controlled their number with poison cubes but the animals grew immune to the poison, reducing the effectiveness of the blocks. Certain poisons have also been banned by Europe, leading the city to search for new, humane ways of controlling the population.
It launched a pilot project with new devices on Wednesday. The device is placed on top of a sewer pipe and has two sensors to detect heat and movement. When a rat passes beneath the device, stump pins drop onto the rat a speed of 130 kilometres per hour. The animal is flattened and dies instantly.
“The method is completely pain-free,” assured Gert Vandecruys, technical director of Anticimex, the company that developed the devices.
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“The aim is not to eradicate the rat population: that is impossible and not desirable,” said Dirk Vansina, councillor for public works. “But as in any other city we sometimes get reports of rat nuisance. The new devices will also help us better monitor where the animals are causing a nuisance.”
The project will be evaluated over the next three months.
