Alarm over rat "rampage" in Ky Son

(Baonghean.vn) -According to the records of the authorities of many communes in Ky Son district, the area of ​​upland riceThe damage caused by rats may have reached hundreds of hectares.

More rats than ever

According to information from the Bao Nam commune government, Ky Son district, the rat problem has appeared for the past 3-4 weeks, but the level of damage is very worrying because the number of rats is unprecedented. The whole commune has 10 villages, all 10 of which have rats destroying crops, mainly upland rice. Currently, Bao Nam has 650 hectares of upland rice and the land is the food source for the people here.

Bao Nam commune has 650 hectares of upland rice, of which 60% of the newly sown and planted area has been damaged by rats.

Mr. Xeo Xuan Huong, Nam Tien 2 village (Bao Nam commune) said: This year, his family planted 200 kg of rice seeds (Khmu people in Bao Nam as well as people who do upland rice cultivation in many areas in Ky Son do not calculate by area but by the amount of rice seeds planted on the field - reporter), just planted the day before, the next day when visiting the field, they saw rats digging and eating all the rice seeds. The fields, the rice plants that had sprouted a few centimeters were also eaten by rats, leaving only the leaves. In just over a week, seven out of ten of the family's fields were destroyed by rats.

Although he is over 50 years old, Mr. Huong has never seen as many rats causing damage as this year. Every night they come out to the field and "plow up" all the seeds that have just been sown.

Unwanted "spoils of war" of Bao Nam people

Mr. Xeo Pho Peng, head of Nam Tien 2 village, said that the whole village has 47 households with 233 people. 100% of the households grow upland rice, which is their main source of food. According to estimates, Nam Tien 2 village currently has 68 hectares of upland rice, and more than 60% of this area has been destroyed by rats.

Mr. Xeo Pho Peng added: This is the second time in his life that he has seen so many rats in this area. The last time was in 1964. At that time, rats also destroyed all the rice fields, and immediately after that, people fell into famine and crop failure. According to the experience of the elderly in the highlands, when bamboo and reed trees bloom, rats will reproduce faster than normal. Bamboo flowers are the favorite food source of this rodent. When the bamboo flowers begin to fall, there is no longer any main food, the rats come to the rice fields and destroy the crops. Even in many of the people's growing areas, rats appear and destroy in broad daylight.

Many communes in Ky Son are in the same situation.

Bamboo flowers are considered "bait" that attracts rats to destroy crops.

Faced with the unusual situation caused by rats, people in Nam Tien 2 village as well as other areas damaged by rats have tried every way to kill rats. Mr. Xeo Pho Thuyen of Nam Tien 2 village said: His family's 50kg of rice seed field was also severely damaged by rats. Every night, he and his family took crossbows to the field to shoot, and within a few hours, they shot 30-40 rats. Although they actively killed rats, it was not effective, in just one week the rats had destroyed almost all of Mr. Thuyen's family's rice field. Using chemicals, slingshots or shooting with crossbows are currently the main ways of killing rats for people. However, it seems that these methods are not very effective. The rat damage is still increasing every day.

"Agent" destroys hundreds of hectares of upland rice fields of people in Ky Son district

According to information from the local authorities, the rice-destroying rats are also appearing in Bao Thang, Huu Kiem, and Huoi Tu communes. Mr. Denh Ba Long, vice chairman of the People's Committee of Huoi Tu commune, said that the whole commune has more than 700 hectares of upland rice in 13 villages that have been damaged by rats. People here also believe that the rats appear a lot because of bamboo flowers. Currently, the villages with the most damage are Trung Tam, Huoi Kha, and Huoi Dun. People in Huoi Tu also use rat poison, but this method is only effective for the first few days, in the following days they avoid eating the bait. Using slingshots and crossbows to shoot is difficult because the rats are only bigger than a thumb. Currently, the commune authorities cannot calculate the extent of the damage because the rat problem continues to rage.

Bao Thang commune has 5 villages, all of which have been ravaged by rats. Mr. Moong Van Loi, vice chairman of the commune People's Committee, said that preliminary estimates show that the damage has reached 60% of the total rice area in the commune. The most severely affected area is Xa Va village, where many rice fields of the Khmu community are concentrated.

Never before have there been so many rats in the kitchens of households in Ky Son.

According to our research, in Huu Kiem commune, there are currently 3 villages with rice fields damaged by rats: Huoi Tho, Dinh Son 1 and Dinh Son 2. Mr. Luong Van Hien, Party Secretary of Dinh Son 1 village, said that the village has 67 hectares of rice fields. The houses that have planted rice have been damaged by rats, an estimated 70% of the area.

The prolonged drought and the rat infestation are really weighing down the lives and economies of many communes and villages in the highlands. Among them is the "great disaster" of rats in Ky Son. Currently, people in villages and hamlets whose cultivated areas have been damaged by rats in Ky Son district are very worried because all the rice seeds stored in their houses have been planted. "If rats continue to gnaw and destroy like this, I'm afraid we'll be hungry at the end of the year and won't have rice seeds to plant next year" - Mr. Xeo Pho Peng, head of Nam Tien 2 village sadly shared.

Article and photos: Huu Vi