WATCH: Rats become a dam problem

Rodents are filling the banks of locals’ favourite dam.

Emmarentia Dam is known for its scenic environment with ducks and canoe rowers gliding across the water but it is also home to colonies of rats. As one walks across the banks of the dam along Louw Geldenhuys Drive you notice rats moving to and from the water reeds. At any given time at a section, there are more than five rats, offspring included, scurrying around the area. This is beginning to cause a panic among residents and users of the park.

According to Maureen Pon, an Emmarentia resident that takes morning walks around the dam, these rats are beginning to infest the homes of people that live near the dam. She said, “My neighbours have installed rodent traps and poison to try to make their properties less desirable to the rats.”

She believes the cause of the rise in these rats is due to the lack of cleaning and maintaining of tree debris, leaves and pine cones. She said the rats often feast on these then retreat to the reeds to multiply and repeat the cycle.

Pon suggested that the community needs to deal with these rats with the help of owls. The Owl Project (https://owlproject.org/ ) uses owls to reduce rodent numbers without the usage of poisons that have resulted in the deaths of children and pets around the country. On their website, they state that a family of barn owls can eat up to 2 500 rats in a year. She believes that this could make a massive difference to Emmarentia Dam’s growing rodent problem.