Ottawa city councillor eyeing 'rat birth control' to cut down on rodent infestations
CTV
As construction across Ottawa stirs up rats, sending them into residential neighbourhoods, one city councillor is looking at a contraceptive product that could cut down on rat populations.
As construction across Ottawa stirs up rats, sending them into residential neighbourhoods, one city councillor is looking at a contraceptive product that could cut down on rat populations.
Ottawa has seen more than 100 service requests for rats on private property so far this year and had 779 service requests in 2023. Last year, the city rebooted its rat mitigation working group to help deal with infestations.
But College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson is proposing another idea.
She tells Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron that she intends to bring forward a motion to council, calling on the city to urge Health Canada to approve a rat contraceptive product that has been used in several U.S. cities.
"We've seen pilots in various cities like Seattle, Washington, D.C. — New York is going to be undergoing a pilot — and they have been applying this bait preconstruction on sites … and they've seen reductions of up to 90 per cent of rats on site that they would normally experience during that time," Johnson said. "The results coming out of the States have been extremely favourable."
One product that acts as a rat contraceptive is called ContraPest. It is currently not authorized for use in Canada. It targets the reproductive functions of rats to keep them from breeding, as rats are wont to do. One study found a significant decrease in litters among rats in Hawai'i that were administered the contraceptive. It does not sterilize them, however, and requires consistent ingestion. The company that manufactures ContraPest says tests have found no adverse effects in non-target species.
Johnson says these products are made to be appealing to rats and they also don't kill them.
