The caption says, “Millions of hungry looking rats invade government buildings at Putrajaya being despite under heavy gun fire from the armed authorities.”

Fiction, it maybe.

Yet many Malaysian urbanites living in the Klang valley residential areas harbour a silent wish that the relevant government authorities and local councils should pay more attention to the dangers of an expanding rat population.

“My car’s engine wiring was bitten by rats and luckily I found out soon enough. The brakes were not working, the rat’s sharp teeth had punctured holes along the brake fluid wiring,” lamented Ah Sang, a taxi driver whose ferrying services daily provide passengers between Kuala Lumpur and Genting Highlands.

“Rats hiding in car engines happens often especially during rainy nights when the engine compartment provides warmth to the more adventurous rodents.

“In the morning, besides checking the wirings inside the car engine, I have to clean off the bits of food left inside. It has become their dining room as well,” he said.

Rats can damage buildings by gnawing through materials. They also spread diseases and illnesses.

Residents staying close to restaurants, hawkers’ food stalls cum centres and “pasar malam” sites inevitably are affected most.

Prolific breeders

CK Tan, whose house is located next to a “pasar malam” in a residential area outside the fringe of Kuala Lumpur city, complained that his garden ground often has holes dug in by rats and droppings left behind by a family of rats.

“I have tried to cover up the holes, but each time I find one and clean the dropping almost every day.”

“I have raised this complaint to our residential association but the problem continues. The most we can do is conduct a “gotong royong” to clean up the environment once in a while or even cooperate with the local council. But the local council should do more on this pest control,” Tan suggested.

Rats are prolific breeders. Producing 200 off-springs a year is a norm.

City centres where there is a ready made food supply for them from fast food restaurants, night markets, hawker stalls and especially when residents do not dispose their daily garbage in a proper kept rubbish bin.

If you think that Malaysians in urban areas facing a rat problem is an isolated case, then you are wrong.

In December last year, there was a report that Britain’s rat population could hit 200 million this year because cash-strapped local councils are axing their free pest control services, British experts said.

The rat population will outnumber Britain’s 60 million residents by 3 to 1.

Rats overtake rat race

Our Malaysian population stands slightly above some 27 million and it is anybody’s guess on the total rat population which is likely to even outstrip our Malaysia’s “rat race” population.

But our local authorities in the Klang Valley are waiting a “time-bomb” to explode. 

Rats, which sparked the plague in the Middle Ages—spread potentially fatal infections such as Weil’s disease and salmonelia is caused by the rat population.

The danger is also made worse by the fact that between 15 and 30 percent of the rat population carry the potentially deadly Weil’s disease.

This is more contagious when rats have the habit of burrowing into walls, garden holes and make nests.

Disease is a major concern. Hair, droppings and urine of rats can contaminate food and surfaces.

Rats also run up drain pipes or wall plants to get into roof space. Gnawing at anything, even wires, pipes and cables, wires and tubes of car engines parked outside homes.

In New York city last year, the worsening rat problem prompted city, state and federal officials to co-host a “Rat Summit” at the Columbia University.

The deliberations focussed on the city’s rat problem and the best way to reduce the rat population.

Impossible to keep out

Within the Klang Valley, we are more concerned about crime rates and have set up gated communities while the rats creep quietly and silently around our homes nightly unchecked.

There is virtually little concern about the rat population and invasion around the residential environment.

Local authorities carry out ad hoc anti-pest campaigns once in a blue moon and virtually no public campaign to educate the public on garbage disposals and strict enforcement on a clean environment.

Take a stroll around the wet markets in KL or residential areas with locations of night markets only to find indiscriminate rubbish disposal inside drains.

Ridding the rat population takes consistency and persistency.

Short term poisoning campaigns do not work, in fact, massive rat poisoning simply reduces the rat population only temporarily.

According to experts on the rat problem, 6 months after (poisoning method), the number of rats will be higher than before.

The effective way to manage the rat population is the old tried and true methods of eliminating the rats’ source of food and water supply including its living areas.

Anti-rat programme

The local authorities should also promote an urban anti-rat programme.

Restaurants owners and food operators must dispose garbage properly.

In many residential areas, shop lot operations and owners do not even use proper rubbish bins for disposing garbage.

And finally, the local health authorities should do more checking on food eateries and market areas to ensure rat-borne diseases are not liable to spread by targeting violators by enforcing fines.

Our Malaysian lifestyle has become more like the “rat-race” while the rodents are not facing the rap they deserve.

Comfortable homes in the ground provide nightly banquets and rats have every reason to celebrate their good fortune from our “couldn’t care-less” complacency and indifference to their pint-sized almost ‘criminal activities’.

Yes, urban rats in the Klang Valley are fortunate ones as they are living in style and without fear.