Kill the rat, kill the cat: Pesticides in UAE killing pests... and pets

A UAE-based vet has called for better training and more regulation of pest control companies in the wake of ongoing animal poisonings due to pesticides and rodenticides not being used properly.

Pest control in the UAE has been under the spotlight recently after a spate of poisonings left three children dead in a month after neighbours’ homes were treated with industrial pesticides.

Dr Sara Elliott from British Veterinary Hospital in Jumeirah says she sees the effects of poorly managed pest control on an almost weekly basis.

“We see poisonings here more often than I’ve ever seen anywhere else,” she said. “It goes through states – it depends how much pest control work is being done in certain areas – it goes through phases where we see three or four pets every month, and then we might go a month or two without seeing any.”

She stated that commonly the hospital sees dogs that have eaten rat bait, or pets that have come in as a result of pesticide poisoning.

Dr Elliot explained that most of these pesticide poisonings were the result of unprofessional companies spraying chemicals that they don’t understand how to use.

“The name of the chemical will be in Arabic with no data sheet provided, and no one at the company knows what it is but when you do find out the name of it, you find that everything has been used incorrectly, or what we would classify in the western world as off-licence. They’ve not taken any consideration of the safety aspects,” she said.

One example Dr Elliott provided was of a home where the garden was sprayed with pesticides that were designed for a wet environment and was supposed to be washed from the leaves.

The garden had ground level irrigation but there was never any water on the leaves, so rather than being a three-day exclusion zone it became a permanent toxic zone for animals.

“But nobody explains that,” says Dr Elliott. “In cases like this, the pesticide is not broken down, so it just dilutes into the soil.”

Last year, residents of the Green Community received a message from community developer Properties Investment, which stated: ‘One dog in the community has died and one cat has been admitted at the Noble Veterinary Center at the Market Mall. We have at least three reports of cats falling ill due to poisoning’.

Dr Elliott says education and training is the key factor in stopping these deaths from continuing.

She explained: “It has got to start with legislation and a requirement for proper warning systems to be put in place when pest control has been undertaken in an area, but for any of that to work the actual workers have to be educated and trained up to standards.”

The other major danger for animals comes from rodenticides, which was the suspected cause of death for the Greens Community poisonings.

Rodenticide is a pest control method intended to kill rodents, but the pallet shaped bait can be attractive to pets when it’s not properly secured in a bait box.

“We’ve had cases where dogs have been poisoned by rat bait from a children’s playground,” said Dr Elliott. “In this case, the pest control company has been paid to empty the bait traps but instead had just poured the bait on top of the bait box out in the open, rather than inside it.”

Rodenticide causes internal bleeding and can be fatal to pets and children.

Rentokil UAE General Manager, James Nicholson, said rodenticide that has been treated with a bittering agent to induce a life-saving gag-reflex is available on the market, but many companies in the UAE opt to use cheaper chemicals that haven’t been treated with any safety precautions.

“As well as bittering agents, there are a few things pest control companies can do to keep areas where we operate safe,” he said. “For example we use tamper-resistant rodent bait stations and we ensure that they are actually tamper proof so if they are damaged, we replace them. A lot of companies have boxes on developments and in public spaces but then when they get damaged they’re just left there.”

He continued: “The problems with a lot of companies is that they’ll use a rat box that isn’t tamper resistant or if it is, it’s a very cheap, flimsy one; the bait is not secured in place; and sometimes people are using granules instead of blocks and they can obviously fall out a lot easier.”

Municipality guidelines are to begin pest control measures with non-toxic bait.

When serviced correctly, at the right times on regular intervals, non-toxic bait allows pest control companies to identify whether or not there is any activity and if there is, they will then implement toxic rodenticide.

Nicholson agrees with Dr Elliott’s sentiment and argues that pest control companies operating in the region need to focus on the training of their personnel in order to bring the industry here up to standard.

“The legislation is there, but a lot of companies aren’t working to it,” he said. “A lot of this comes down to the fact that everyone has the same tools, but it’s how you use those tools.

“For example, there are a lot of different models of rat box out there. You have to look at the type of rat box you’re using – is it a flimsy one that can be pulled apart or does it have a decent lock on it? Is it fixed in place or can it be picked up, shaken about so the rodenticide can fall out of the box?”

When pest control is working onsite, there are often a lot of other workers onsite such as landscaping or maintenance, who might move the bait boxes without knowing what it is.

If the pest control company is not doing the routine visits, not following the procedures to make sure they’re visiting all the boxes on a regular basis, then things do get dislodged.

“Poisonings don’t always happen because the bait box hasn’t been installed correctly in the first place, but because of what was happening around it – there’s always external influences and you need to be vigilant about it.”

ALSO READ:

Deadly Mers virus might have originated in… South African bats

School staff gets death for raping 7-year-old student

Win AED 600 Air Arabia vouchers EVERY DAY!

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.