It’s about to be hunting season in West Somerville – for rats.
An order for pest control company sharpshooters to kill rats with air rifles was sent to committee Thursday by the City Council, proposed by Ward 7 city councilor Emily Hardt as a follow-up to a ban on poisons that might travel up the food chain and kill animals other than rats: If one method of control is taken away, another must take its place.
“This is something that’s used widely in Europe, where rodenticides have been much more restricted than here,” and the air rifles have been used elsewhere in the state over the past two and a half years, Hardt said. “They have specialized equipment. They’re highly, highly accurate.”…