QUANG BINH – Setting traps from 14:00 to midnight, the team of hunters trapped about 150 kg of rats, protecting 60 hectares of rice in Dong Thanh village, Lien Thuy commune, Le Thuy district.
At the end of August, close to the summer-autumn harvest season, rats appeared in the fields of Dong Thanh Cooperative. They nest all over the dikes and fields. Many small paths along the fields are also run by rats.
Mr. Hoang Van Dung, Director of Dong Thanh Cooperative, said that this is the second year the cooperative produces the summer-autumn crop in a new form of sowing rather than keeping the root of the winter-spring crop so that the rice plants can reproduce and germinate by themselves. regeneration). Therefore, when the surrounding fields are regenerative rice harvested first, and the sown rice still waiting to ripen, the rats follow the scent of rice to gather in Dong Thanh’s field to destroy it.
After only one night, the rats destroyed the whole pole of rice. They bite the broken rice stalk, the field is destroyed, 50-70% damaged, can not be harvested. Rats cause the cooperative to lose 15 hectares, estimated at 400 million VND.
Dong Thanh cooperative mobilized farmers to build nylon fences around the fields, combining many biological measures to prevent destruction, but the results were not satisfactory.
After much discussion, Dong Thanh Cooperative decided to hire a team of 6 workers to set traps to kill rats around the field. Mr. Nguyen Van Hai, 50 years old, living in Phu Tho village (An Thuy commune, Le Thuy commune) in charge of the team of workers, said that he and 5 colleagues went to the field to set traps from 14:00 every day.
Each person uses from 120 to 150 semicircular traps, placed in front of the cave entrance, along the way to eat. Each trap has a short rope of about 2 cm, connected to a 50 cm bamboo stick firmly plugged into the ground so that the mouse does not pull the trap and run away. On the top of the bamboo stick, wrap a reflective decal for identification in the dark. Traps are placed on mats, today in this area, tomorrow will be placed in the vicinity, surrounding the rice growing area.
At 6pm, the trap was set, the crew had a snack before going “weekly”. “Mice are active at night, only come out of the cave at night to eat, so this is the time to kill them,” said Mr. Hai.
He and the team of workers divided each person into a dike to check, if any traps collapsed, they would be reset. There are traps with 2-3 mice, but there are no traps because the mice are too small. After going through one turn, they circled back again, one-night revolving several times until 24 hours.
At the end of the working day, the team of workers collected about 120-150 kg of rats, and paid 500,000 VND each. Rats were collected and destroyed by the cooperative. Trapping lasts for 20 consecutive days until the rice is harvested. In addition to the workers, the cooperative also mobilized farmers to participate in setting traps to kill rats.
Director of Dong Thanh Cooperative Hoang Van Dung assessed that the setting of traps makes a great contribution to protecting the rice fields of farmers. Lien Thuy Commune People’s Committee has worked with the district to find ways to support farmers to kill rats, find the optimal solution to apply and take measures to limit rats in the next crop.
(According to vnexpress )