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Paradise for foodies... and rats at Ghim Moh Market and Food Centre

While Newton Food Centre is as famous for its aggressive touts as its food, Ghim Moh Market and Food Centre has been besieged with pests of a different kind. The Straits Times finds out how the two centres are dealing with their problems.

SINGAPORE - Ghim Moh Market and Food Centre is famed within the local community for dishes such as hor fun and yong tau foo.

Less well known has been its rat problem, which became so bad that last month, the National Environment Agency (NEA) called for a quote from pest controllers to get rid of the infestation while upgrading works take place.

Unseen to diners were piles of droppings that had collected under pipes between stalls which the rodents used as pathways.

The building at Block 20 - which also serves residents in the Ulu Pandan, Holland Road, and Bukit Timah areas - closed about two weeks ago for upgrading works. It is expected to reopen in early 2016.

Pest controllers began a 10-day rat removal exercise there on Oct 1 and as of yesterday, 163 have been caught.

An NEA spokesman said that 71 rat burrows in the area were detected and treated last month.

The market and food centre have moved to a temporary site opposite. The spokesman said there will be weekly pest control treatment there as a precaution.

One man who is hoping the rats have not moved too is Mr Soh Koon Siong. He has worked at the market for 27 years, collecting fees for the use of the toilet, but became its unofficial rat catcher when the problem intensified last year.

The market bought about 30 traps which usually caught a rat a day. "The rat goes in, the stall owner will tell me," the 57- year-old told The Straits Times. "I know their pattern - the same way they go, they will come out. I wait outside with the rat trap."

Some of his adversaries, however, wised up to his plan and jumped over the trap.

Regular customers remained unfazed when told who they had been eating with. The common reaction? Every market has rats.

Mr Wallace Gwee, 55, who is semi-retired, eats at the hawker centre almost every day. "Every market you go, you see rats," he said. "It depends on how serious the problem is."

However, Mr Carl Baptista, director of pest control company Origin Exterminators, said that no matter how serious the problem, rats are an issue because they can spread disease. Getting rid of them is an intensive operation as they work in a hierarchy, he said. "The alpha males and females are just chilling back home, reproducing. Those sent out are usually younger, weaker, and foraging for food."

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