Partij voor de Dieren is ‘highly concerned’ about rat bait boxes on campus

They can be found all over the campus: little grey plastic boxes. They are bait boxes used to control rats, which are a major problem on EUR’s campus, as they are in the entire Rijnmond region. However, the Partij voor de Dieren (‘Party for the Animals’) has asked the Rotterdam local authorities whether the bait used in the boxes is actually legal.

The Party has posed questions on this issue to the municipal authorities, saying that it is ‘highly concerned’ about the large number of bait boxes and wishes to learn whether Erasmus University is allowed to install such boxes in the ‘public space’ (i.e., the campus). The Party has also expressed a fear that the bait used in the boxes contains blood thinners, which can only be used on the proviso that the party installing the bait has obtained permission to do so from a special organisation that monitors the use of bait, the Dutch Board for the Authorisation of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (CTGB).

The Party has stated that the way in which EUR seeks to control rats does not conform to the City of Rotterdam’s Rat Infestation Action Plan. “After all, Rotterdam seeks to prevent situations that cause inconvenience through vermin control, rather than through pest control,” the Party says on its website. “There is no room for poisonous bait in this policy.”

'No poisonous bait used'

A spokesperson for Erasmus University says there is no such problem. “Rentokil [the company responsible for the elimination of rats – ES] does not use poisonous bait. If a box says ‘trap / bait’, it is just a trap. Erasmus Plaza has been equipped with a so-called rat hotel. The bait used here is sunflower seeds, tuna, etc.”