By Navendra Seoraj

A FERAL feline is often revered as the ultimate “rat catcher,” but, in an open field, with plants as high as 3.3 feet, their expertise is unavoidably substituted by that of sugar workers, who scour acres of land to track and exterminate a very ‘dangerous,’ “sweet-toothed” rodent, the holochilus brasiliensis, commonly referred to as a “savannah rat.”

This “medium sized” species is said to be between 167 mm and 211 mm in head-to-body length, while the tail stretches between 183 mm and 214 mm – almost the same size or longer than the core part of its body.
The dorsal colour is cinnamon, the flanks are a brighter orange and the underparts a paler orange, apart from a white throat and chest and some white in the unguinal area.

But don’t be fooled by its small frame and ‘adorable’ look, this creature, as described by many persons, is cunning, nimble and moves freely on land and in water; qualities fitting of a sly rodent, which, most times, cannot be captured using live traps.

Those physical features alone are enough to have any human falling, tumbling and even running out of breath in pursuit of this rodent.

Thankfully, capturing such a rodent is not a daily task of an average Joe, but the same cannot be said for sugar workers, as the fate of every sugarcane plant rests on their shoulders.

Sugarcane, saccharum officinarum, is a perennial grass in the family poaceae, grown for its stem (cane) which is primarily used to produce sucrose (sugar). And, while the sucrose is delectable for human beings, it is the sugarcane that attracts savannah rats. They feed on tender shoots during the periods of migration and mating, especially where estates border the savannahs.

The thousands of hectares of land aback the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate have been ideal for savannah rats to have “fine dining,” but the “guardians of sugarcane” — sugar workers — have served as the security at the door of this ‘restaurant.’

If allowed to ‘dine’ at Uitvlugt, the bill those hungry rodents would rack up would be insurmountable for GuySuCo.

DANGEROUS

Agriculture Manager at the Uitvlugt Estate, Andrew McLeod said savannah rats — one of three major pests that affect sugarcane — are dangerous if left uncontrolled, because they are capable to destroying up to 78 per cent of an estate’s cane within one year.

“One rodent bites close to 17 stalk of cane per night, so if your cultivation is invaded with rats, you could lose 78 per cent of your cane within a year if not controlled,” McLeod told the Guyana Chronicle during an interview on Wednesday.

With an unimaginable potential economic loss, it is paramount that the estate invests in proper pest control, which, in many cases, comes in the form of an eight-member “rat lashing” team, chosen from among the very workers who cultivate sugarcane.

Manual rat hunting is by no means contemporary, as it is a profession that dates back to the early days of cultivation when this form of pest control was among the few effective methods known to man.

Almost like a game of cricket, persons from the eight-member team head to the cane fields equipped with their wooden batons, ready to use hand-eye coordination and skillful swatting techniques to decimate their targets.
Synonymous to a tiger eyeing its prey, the “rat lashers” would trail their targets quietly using subtle hints and signs to guide their movements through the lush cane fields, until the time is right to attack.

“The men would go through the cane field and identify the rats’ nest and starting hitting… they have to hit in a particular way to ensure that the rats do not escape,” McLeod explained, adding that the intensity and scene is reflective of any realistic hunting exercise.

In cases where the batons are ineffective, the rat hunters would convert to arsonists and undertake an exercise called circle burning.

This includes persons positioning themselves at various points around the field and lighting small fires simultaneously, to chase the rats into the centre of the field. In this way, rats would either run to the centre of the field where they are exterminated or they would perish in the blaze.

Escaping the hunters is almost impossible because even the rats, which manage to evade the blaze and reach the drains, meet a sad demise with the baton which comes back into play.

Those methods claimed the lives of over 42,000 rats last year and over 50,000 rats in 2019, at Uitvlugt alone.
While there are other effective methods of pest control like rodent baiting and field sanitisation, manual hunting undoubtedly remains critical in the extermination of savannah rats. It has even evolved from the “pied piper” to a competition among members of the “rat lashing” team.

SIDE JOB
In addition to their day’s pay, workers, through the rat lashing exercise, are given an opportunity to pocket a little more cash once their rat catching technique is efficient enough to earn them 25 or more kills.

Yes, it’s not as easy as exterminating one rat. In order to qualify for payment, rat lashers would have to kill 25 rats.
“We only pay an individual for rats if they catch 25 and over… any rat caught below will not be paid… they only receive the normal industrial day’s pay,” McLeod said, adding that qualified persons are paid $38.60 per rat.
This system encourages competition among workers, as the eight-member team is split further into groups of two, not just for safety purpose but to compete equitably.

Altogether, the team would need over 50 rats to be paid. There’s, however, another catch to the exercise. The tails of the rats are used for accountability purposes, but bamboozling the ‘judges’ is out of the equation because the house rat has a shorter tail than that of the savannah rat.

Being a champion of this exercise is no easy task, but one worker called Cooper, has reigned supreme for the past few years, holding the record of 105 rats in a single day.

Surpassing this record has been no easy task for workers, but the art of rat lashing remains an important way of saving sugar and building camaraderie among workers.