The overall rodent infestation reference index in Hong Kong last year improved compared with the previous year. However, the expenditure and the number of establishments continued to increase, and the effectiveness was questioned. According to the latest Legislative Council document, the overall expenditure on rodent prevention and control of the FEHD has increased from the 2017 annual 569 million yuan, up from 731 million yuan last year, an increase of about 28%. Last year, the total number of live mice and dead mice was 67,182. The average cost of catching each mouse was 10,880 yuan. The annual expenditure on pest control will further increase to 751 million yuan, among which the manpower of civil servants and outsourced staff will also increase accordingly. The department said it will actively introduce new technologies and equipment to further enhance the effectiveness of pest control work.
The overall expenditure on pest control services has increased year by year, including additional manpower
According to the FEHD's written reply to a number of Legislative Council members' questions on the effectiveness of rodent control, the overall expenditure on FEHD's pest control services will increase from $569 million in 2017-2018 to 2021-2022 The revised estimate of 731 million yuan, of which government staff expenditure will account for 275 million yuan, and the estimated expenditure this year will further increase to 751 million yuan, of which government staff expenditure will slightly increase to 277 million yuan.
In terms of manpower for pest control this year, the civil service team has slightly increased by 18 from 727 in 2019 to 745 this year, and the number of outsourced staff has increased from 1,968 in 2019 to 2,208 this year, an increase of about 12%.
Last year, FEHD placed poisonous rat baits in buildings 109,685 times, used mouse traps 86,164 times, collected 67,182 dead rats and captured live rats. If divided by the overall expenditure on pest control, the average cost of catching each rat was 10,880 In the same year, the department also eliminated 72,012 mosquito breeding sites.
The department said that the overall rodent reference index for the whole year of last year was 3.1%, which was an improvement from 3.6% in 2020. The monitoring sites with the rodent reference index level 2 were also reduced from 7 in 2020 to 3. The most serious area is Yau Tsim District, which reached 8.7% last year. The rest are Wan Chai and Sham Shui Po, with rodent infestation indices of 5.5% and 5.2% respectively. In total, the rodent infestation index of six districts increased compared with the previous year.
Hong Kong-wide anti-rodent operation in target communities to start next month
The department said that it will continue to take a number of pest control actions, such as holding a territory-wide and inter-departmental rodent eradication campaign every year. The rodent eradication operation in the community, which was held in May and October respectively, mainly aims to keep the community clean and hygienic by cutting off the food source of rodents, clearing the hiding spots of rodents and blocking the passages of rodents. , Southern District, Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon City, Tsuen Wan and Tai Po Districts to implement an enhanced version of the rodent eradication operation in the target community, expanding the scope of rodent eradication to cover more public markets and municipal buildings, hawker markets, and back lanes adjacent to restaurants When the black spots are infested with rodents, a large-scale and targeted rodent eradication operation will be carried out.
As for rodent infestation monitoring, the department said it will continue to strengthen follow-up actions and conduct intensive rodent control and rodent control at monitoring sites with a rodent infestation index of 8% or above, and re-evaluate the effectiveness of the work after one month. If the index of the monitoring site remains high, a thermal monitoring system will be used to assist in the deployment of rodent control and rodent control to identify hot spots of rodent activity.
In addition, the Financial Secretary Chan Mo-po announced in the 2022-23 Budget to allocate an additional $500 million to the FEHD to enhance environmental hygiene services, including intensifying efforts to prevent rodent infestation in response to the epidemic , as well as strengthening inspections and law enforcement to raise community awareness of hygiene. The key points include taking into account the work safety of civil servants and employees of outsourced contractors, providing adequate and suitable protective equipment and safety training. As of February this year, the department has been providing services from The department obtained about 14 million masks, 250,000 pairs of gloves, 30,000 sets of full-body protective clothing and 50,000 alcohol-based hand sanitizers for use by the department's employees, and distributed about 28 million masks to the frontline workers of the contractor.
Red-bellied squirrel Pokfulam Reservoir asks hikers for help Cheng Kadoorie Farm rescues the 60,000th animal Or cause a new variant of the virus to spread to humans
01 Community
