A man in Ang Mo Kio came up with an ingenious idea of using roast duck as rat bait after a rodent infestation developed near a market and hawker centre.
Source: Melanie Lim on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only
The infestation was supposedly due to an accumulation of garbage, he said.
No longer able to tolerate the unhygienic situation, the man set up traps containing the roasted meat and managed to catch an astonishing 50 rodents in the span of a month.
On top of that, he recently sustained minor injuries while attempting to extinguish a fire near the dumpster in a separate incident.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, the man is a 56-year-old hawker known only as Mr Liu (transliterated from Mandarin).
Over the past year, Mr Liu noticed that garbage, such as cardboard boxes, was accumulating near the market and hawker centre at Block 628 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4.
As the rubbish pile continued to grow, he noticed just how unhygienic the situation was.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
He told the Chinese-language paper that he lives nearby.
On his routine walks to the hawker centre for work, he would reportedly notice rodents appearing near the cardboard boxes.
“I believe the cardboard is from other stallholders. For the sake of convenience, they don’t even open the dumpster, they just leave them outside,” he said.
By midnight, he would see a “cardboard mountain”.
Even though the cleaners would clear them every day at around 7am, the garbage would start to accumulate again when night fell, Mr Liu elaborated.
As such, he concocted a plan to deal with the pesky rats about a year ago.
He obtained some roast duck from his friend who sells the roasted delights.
Then, he put the meat into rat cage traps and went around placing them at rodent nests in the area.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
“In the short span of a month, I managed to successfully catch 50 rats,” he claimed. “After that, the situation improved a little, and the number of rats has decreased.”
Besides thwarting the rodent infestation, Mr Liu also played a key role in putting out a fire near the dumpster in a separate incident at around 1pm on 3 Sep.
In fact, he sustained some minor injuries while helping to extinguish the blaze.
That day, a cleaner ran to the hawker centre to tell them that there was a fire, he recalled.
He explained, “I stopped whatever I was doing and went to take a look. When I got there, there were people who wanted to use water to extinguish the fire.”
“However, as we did not know what started the fire, I stopped them from using water out of fear the flames might get bigger,” he added.
Mr Liu and his friend then smashed the glass panel covering the fire extinguisher with their bare hands.
He then sprayed the fire with the extinguisher until it was completely gone before letting the others pour water on the affected cardboard boxes.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
“The glass panel left cuts on me and my friend’s hands, but luckily they weren’t serious,” Mr Liu shared.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force later confirmed the incident with Lianhe Zaobao.
They said that one person sustained minor injuries but declined conveyance to the hospital.
Also Read: Pasir Ris Residents Face Troubling Rat Infestation, Rodents Reportedly As Large As Kittens
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Melanie Lim on Unsplash and Heiko Kiera on Fotolia via Britannica, for illustration purposes only.
A record of more than 553,000 travellers crossed both checkpoints on 13 Dec.
There has been no year-end Covid-19 wave, as had been expected.
The beef was imported without a veterinary health certificate and halal certification.
One fan started queueing as early as 7am.
The company made the change after parents said they wanted to make sure their gifts…
An incredible twist of fortune for the police -- and a stroke of bad luck…