Can’t kill mice

As I walked along National Highway 1A and looked at the summer-autumn rice fields in Phu Thanh District (Tuy Hoa City), I was struck by the image of branches combined with wrappers (so-called flags) placed all over the field. Many paddy fields are also surrounded by a plastic fence to prevent rats from entering and destroying them.

Mr. Tran Van Tam, a second quarter resident in Hoa Vinh District (Dong Hoa City) who owns a paddy field in Phu Thanh District, said that the paddy fields here are frequently infested with rats every year during the summer-autumn harvest. Damage 20 to 30 days after sowing. Especially in fields near main roads or high hills, there is a higher risk of rats biting young rice than in fields far away.

What is causing “headaches” for farmers in this year’s summer-autumn harvest is the proliferation of rats, which are attacking the fields violently, despite killing the rats before sowing.

According to Mr. Tran Van Tam, in addition to rat-repellent measures such as putting up flags and plastic fences around paddy fields, people also kill rats with bait, traps, etc., but the harmful effects of rats are only partially limited. Currently, the rats are still hunting rice and are showing no signs of stopping.

Note that Mr. Tam’s rice field is about 30 days old. Thanks to the favorable weather, rice grows and develops well. However, the rat invaded the field to destroy the jagged rice, so Mr. Tam had to plant for miles again, which made him very angry.

About half a month ago, Mr. Tam went to the field every afternoon to set traps to kill rats. “Every time I set 15-20 traps, every morning when I go to visit, I see 7-8 mice, even 10 a day, but it hasn’t improved, the mice are still biting the rice,” said Mr. Tam.

We left the rice field at Mr. Tam’s house and went to the Ha Bo De rice field in Phu Lam District (Tuy Hoa City). Here the situation is similar, many paddy fields near the main road were destroyed by rats and the farmers had to replant several times.

Mr. Vo Van Tai in Quarter 3, Phu Lam Township (Tuy Hoa City), who owns a rice field here, said that in this case, the rat epidemic was rampant, although people took many measures, but they could not kill the rats . Now, like many people here whose fields are bitten by rats, he must visit the fields every day to remove bait and set traps, but not dare to ignore them.

Not only rice fields in Phu Lam and Phu Thanh districts, but according to our records, many rice fields are also located near main roads and high hills in Hoa Vinh district (Dong Hoa city), Binh Kien township (Tuy Hoa city) and in Hoa The community of Tri (Phu Hoa) was also badly damaged by rats.

Mr. Pham Ngoc Tien, director of Binh Kien 2 Agricultural and General General Services Cooperative (Binh Kien Municipality (Tuy Hoa City)), said that the cooperative’s fields are currently Bo Dau, traffic and rice fields. 6 and Rui 12 near the highway went through a lot of rats. According to statistics, the area affected by rats is about 10 ha and people are organizing to prune miles again.

Launched to kill mice

Mr. Truong Dan, director of Phu Lam Agricultural-Business Service Cooperative (Phu Thanh District, Tuy Hoa City), said the cooperative’s rice production area was badly damaged by rats compared to other places. Partly because rice fields border many main roads and houses are interspersed with rice fields, this is a haven for rats.

Partly because the cooperative’s paddy fields weren’t flooded as badly as they are every year last year, so the rats proliferated. Even before the sowing of the summer-fall crop, the cooperative launched a nationwide rat-killing movement and achieved good results. But recently, the situation of rats damaging rice is also alarming.

According to Mr. Truong Dan, when young rice is bitten by rats, farmers can currently still overcome the problem by replanting, but after a few days when old rice is old, this is no longer possible. Therefore, to protect the crops, the cooperative has announced the launch of a nationwide movement to kill rats by any means, but it is strictly forbidden to use electricity to kill rats.

“The cooperative has announced that it will launch the second round of rat extermination from July 15 to July 31 and will purchase rat tails at VND2,000/tail. “As much as people have, the cooperative will buy as much,” said Mr. Dan.

In this year’s summer-autumn harvest, the Phu Lam Agriculture – Business Service Cooperative produces 560 ha of rice. Up to this point, rice tea is sown 30 days earlier and 15-25 days later. Currently, about 30% of the cooperative’s rice area is infested with rats. So far, people have overcome the bitten paddy fields relatively completely, but the harmful rat problem has not come to an end.

Mr Pham Ngoc Tien, director of the Binh Kien 2 Agricultural – Business General Service Cooperative, said the cooperative has spent money to buy semi-circular mousetraps to prevent rats from damaging rice in order to give their children a prize again 50% for organizing the rat extermination. Currently, people go to the fields every afternoon to harvest rice and set up harmful mousetraps. This is a much more effective solution to getting rid of mice than baiting as the mice will now refuse to eat the bait.

According to Mr. Pham Ngoc Tien, before sowing the seeds, the cooperative plowed and bought the entire field with rat poison and also dug holes to trap mice, killing about 1,000 mice. However, this year the rats multiplied greatly and bit the rice violently. The reason could be that there were few floods last year, so the rats were not killed much and lived on high hills. After the water receded, they returned to the fields to live and bite the rice.