Rats wreak havoc in winter-spring rice crop

(Baoquangngai.vn)- Farmers are complaining about rats ravaging the winter-spring rice crop. The whole province currently has more than 1,052 hectares of rice damaged by rats.

Going out to visit the fields early in the morning, holding a bundle of rice that had been damaged by rats, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phong, in Dien Chanh village, Nghia Dien commune (Tu Nghia) sighed: "There are so many rats, every morning when I go out to the fields and see them damaging the rice, I feel sorry. All 4 sao of rice of my family have been damaged by rats quite a lot."

Over the past month, farmers have been complaining about rats gnawing and destroying their fields. Farmers have tried every way to kill rats, such as setting bait, setting traps, planting flags, sweeping oil, etc., but to no avail. In the fields of Tinh An Tay Commune ( Quang Ngai City), many lush green rice fields have been destroyed by rats. Farmers are having a “headache” with rats.

Farmers are having a "headache" because of rats damaging rice.

“If they are biting and destroying the rice like this, the crop will definitely fail. We have tried many ways to kill them but they are not effective, so we have to buy plastic sheets to make fences around the fields to prevent the rats from biting and destroying the rice,” said Ms. Le Thi Tan, in Doc Lap village, Tinh An Tay commune.

According to farmers, last year's flood season did not cause major flooding in the province, so rats were rarely swept away, creating favorable conditions for them to breed and cause serious damage to the winter-spring rice crop.

Rats are causing damage to rice fields from the tillering to flowering stages, with a total damaged area of more than 1,052 hectares. Rats are causing damage in most localities, except for Ly Son and Son Tay districts.

Rat-repelling flags are planted by farmers throughout the rice fields.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quang Trung, rats are currently appearing in large numbers in the fields and will continue to cause damage to the winter-spring rice crop in the coming time. The agricultural sector recommends that farmers regularly visit their fields and organize rat extermination to minimize the damage caused by rats and the impact on the productivity of the winter-spring rice crop.

Farmers often use many methods to kill rats, focusing on mechanical traps and protecting natural enemies of rats such as pythons, snakes, owls, etc. Absolutely do not use electricity to trap rats, because it is dangerous to human life.

When it is necessary to kill rats with pesticides, use pesticides in the list of pesticides permitted for use in Vietnam. Priority is given to using new generation rat poisons with active ingredients such as: Bromadiolone, Coumatetralyl, Flocoumafen... (with trade names such as Kingcat 0.05RB, Cat0.25WP, Racumin 0.75TP, Ratmiu 0.75TP, Storm 0.005% block bait, Broma 0.005AB...)

Article and photos: AI KIEU

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