Marseille has 1.5 to 1.7 rats per inhabitant. If the situation doesn’t get worse, it isn’t resolved. In order to fight against these pests, the assistant in charge of this question Aïcha Guadjali decided to test a new method: the ferret. Already tested in other cities in France, this device will be tested in mid-December in Marseille.
According to the estimates of Pierre Falgayrac, consultant specialist in the subject and author of two books on the question of the rat. For him, the number of rats in Marseille is not increasing, but rather decreasing.
There would be between 1.5 and 1.7 rats per inhabitant in Marseille. That is less than 1 million 500 thousand rats. “As soon as we approach the residential estates built in 1960 or 1970, we go down to 1 rat for 10 inhabitants”.
According to this specialist in rat extermination issues, it is the heart of the city, the Noailles district, which would concentrate the most rats, as well as the seaside.
In September 2021, the presence of rats in a school in the 14th arrondissement of Marseille forced parents to keep their children at home.
To overcome it, Aïcha Guedjali, Municipal Councilor for insalubrity and pests has decided to test a new method already used in Toulouse and Vitry-sur-Seine, hunting rats by ferrets. She also announced it on social networks.
“We have identified several sites where the problem of rats is recurrent”.
This experiment will take place in two phases.
“The first in mid-November, where a first diagnosis will be made by our expert Alexandre Raynal, a ferret breeder in the Gers. From there, we will arbitrate on the sites where it is relevant to intervene”.
These are always outdoor sites, “parks and gardens often located near schools and nurseries where there are problems” .
Then comes the second phase, mid-December, on site.
“Our expert Alexandre Raynal, will come with a dozen ferrets during each operation. Nets will be placed in the area to be treated, then the ferrets will be released, they will track the rats which will run away on the opposite side, where they will be captured in barrels and euthanized with CO2 “explains Aïcha Guedjali.
A method considered “non-polluting and ecological”.
The advantage is also not to see the corpses of rats lying around all over the city, as may be the case with traps or rat poison.
A very old method because ferrets were already used on board Roman ships to hunt rats.
A method “complementary to what already exists”underlines Aïcha Guedjali. “The idea being to regulate the population by different means”.
If the method bears fruit, the elected official does not exclude “to generalize it to other sites in the city”.