Recently in California, cities have been overrun by rodents. The number of rodents is ever-growing particularly in Los Angeles and it’s being triggered by an increasing homeless population and ban or restrictions on rodenticides that are causing harm to public health. This is according to a recent study.
Rodents carry dangerous diseases such as salmonella and typhus in addition to their contributing roles in asthma.
Cases of workers in the city being bitten by rodents are on the rise with most of them emanating from Los Angeles.
The recent study also surveyed over 20 pest control companies and got to know that all the reports of rat service requests were over 55% percent in the previous year. A study published by the pest control company Orkin named Los Angeles the second most rat-infested city, and Chicago being the first.
According to the press conference held at Los Angeles city hall, the two main reasons behind rodent explosion are:
1. Increase in the homeless population
This provides a source of food that supports population growth.
2. Ban on practices for eradicating rodents
In Los Angeles, the most effective practices for eradicating rats have been banned.
In the previous year, about three-quarters of the homeless people in Los Angeles were living outside, escalating concerns of a rise in a public health crisis with rats and garbage pile-up near homeless encampments in downtown and sidewalks.
A political group from Reform California said that the population of rodents can be controlled if not eradicated using an effective tool for pest control, but Los Angeles stopped the use of the second generation anticoagulant rodenticides in 2014 which has been claimed to cause the spike.
The report headed by DeMaio and other vector control industry leaders asked the governor to declare an emergency (public health) in the state, and public entities are required to address the situation.
It also called on the state legislative system to counter and oppose the assembly bill (1788) that seeks to stop certain rodent deterring products that use robust chemicals.
Instead of addressing the crisis, the lawmakers in California are just months away from passing the legislation that bans the best rodent control methods available with the use of less effective, so-called “green alternatives”, DeMaio Said.
Pest control agencies and companies spoke out that their hands are tied by the regulations of the government that forces them to use green pest control to eradicate rodents.
Apart from the twelve percent increase in homelessness in Los Angeles in the previous year, a dominating problem is illegal dumping. Last month, reports tell us that Los Angeles cited over 80 businesses for not having proper trash receptacles causing the problem of illegal dumping.
Recently, the Los Angeles city council allocated over $6.5 million to the Bureau of Sanitation to attend to the cost of health and hygiene services that will clean up areas that seriously needs cleaning.