Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — Citizens have called for new methods to combat an alarming increase of rats in Jeddah, especially at the beach.



Answering a Saudi Gazette question about the estimated number of rats in the city, Jeddah Municipality spokesman Mohammad Al-Bugami said a female rat can give birth to up to litters of eight rats, five to seven times a year.



Baby rats become independent within one month, he said. Norwegian rats are mainly spreading in different locations of Jeddah, especially in storage areas, said Al-Bugami.



He believed that rats increase in numbers due to the environment of Jeddah, which offers different locations that allow the rodents to breed in huge numbers.



The municipality, he added, combats the rats using mousetraps through weekly tours at different locations where they breed heavily.



The municipality also focuses on removing garbage as it helped reduce the number of rodents in northern areas of Jeddah and in the historic Balad area.



Awareness efforts are also needed to educate the public on disposing of their rubbish responsibly, he said.



Locations where rats are rampant, he said, include old districts, unclean areas, around garbage, at the beach, unused houses and buildings and storage locations, especially those used to dry bread.



The municipality website has posted a field tour schedule for monitoring and combating rats. The schedule covers different residential districts, the coast and storing areas.



Boushra Al-Ghamdi, a mother of four from Riyadh, said she stopped going to Jeddah Corniche at night after she was shocked to see a huge rat that was almost as big as a small cat.



She said: "My children freaked out when they saw the rat and we had to leave the location immediately. We were thrilled to see the new Corniche with playing areas for the children and a walking area, but the major problem was the rodents.”



Houses are also not safe from rats, according to university student Afaf Al-Shaikh, who lives in Al-Shatie District.



Her family has to firmly lock the door of their villa as rats have gotten into their courtyard and then their home.



She called on the municipality to help the public find new effective ways to overcome this problem.