It's the year of the Golden Pig for the Chinese this year.

Believed to be especially lucky it happens once every 40 years. Anxious to make the most of it, Chinese authorities report a wave of marriages and maternity wards across the country are gearing up for an expected surge in births.

In Bermuda there's little fanfare this month although it is the month of the rat.

According to the Health Department, March is get rid of rats month on the Island. Yet those who do it most will tell you Bermuda rats don't take vacations or hibernate.

According to Ross Furbert, head of Government's Vector Control, local rats are out year round. He said they only appear more plentiful in the summer because people are outside more and can therefore more readily spot them.

Also in the warmer months much food eating takes place outside and that pulls them from their burrows and trees.

"Most of our work is reactive," said Mr. Furbert. "We have broken the Island into ten districts and we have a person in each district who devotes two days a week to rodent control."

The ten inspectors are responsible for residential properties and there is an 11th who looks after all farms and gardens. The work that the inspector does is more proactive than reactive, Mr. Furbert said.

If you waited for rats to appear in a farm or garden it would probably mean the crop, at least some of it, was already lost.

In the residential setting, vector control inspectors only respond after rodents have appeared. "We get quite a number of calls from people who say 'You know it's that time of year again, I think you should come and set some traps' but we don't work that way," Mr. Furbert said. "We investigate after someone sees or suspects that they actually have rodents."

And contrary to what many believe, property owners, and not vector control inspectors, are responsible for keeping their premises rodent free.

In fact the Public Health Rodent Control Regulations specifically states: "Every person who is the owner or occupier of any premises shall take, or cause to be taken, all reasonable steps to ensure that the premises are maintained free of rats."

When garbage is stored outside, ensuring it is in a covered metal container goes a long way to stemming the problem.

Rat poison or rodenticides are not the preferred method of control according to Mr. Furbert. "Rodenticides should be a last resort," he said. "We should be looking for what caused the problem and try to eliminate that."

When inspectors visit properties they look for clues to the rats' whereabouts.

"They'll look for frayed wires from a utility pole. They'll check if the eaves of the house are properly finished, if there are gaps in the rafters," said Mr. Furbert. "All these can indicate how the rats are coming across. That is in the case of roof rats."

Bermuda has two rat species — the Norway rat commonly called the salt water rat and the roof rat that lives mainly in trees. "People will often see them on power lines," said Mr. Furbert.

Norway rats are probably what you have if you have rats in your cellar. In cellars where a floor has not been laid, vector control inspectors look for runways. "This types of rat lives in burrows," said Mr. Furbert. "When they find a food source, they make their way from the burrow to that food source and then back again. They will use the same path each time which causes a track or runway to form," he added.

When an inspector finds a runway he can usually easily find the rat's burrow.

Once the source of the problem is spotted the inspector gives the home owner specific actions to take. For example, if it were discovered that the eaves of the house were loose, the inspector would urge the homeowner to properly fix them.

"Even if no rodents are found to be nesting there, because this is a potential problem our recommendation would be for the homeowner to fix it," Mr. Furbert said.

As the responsibility for rat control rests with property owners, the inspectors' instructions are more than recommendations. They must be adhered to and a timeframe for compliance is usually set when the advice is given.

Typical rat attractions seen on local properties are large wood piles, large mounds of soil, stacks of debris and broken cesspit tops.

"Rats love cesspits and if a top is open they are sure to go in," said Mr. Furbert.

Once the rats are there and have secured a food source it's not likely they'll leave. That's when rodenticides are used. The poison kills the rodents in a matter of hours or days depending on the strength of the specific poison used.

Top gun is the strongest and is used only in emergency situations or extreme infestations. Inspectors are only allowed to administer this deep green poison under the supervision of a foreman.

"We might use this if we found rats in a school," Mr. Furbert said. "We would go in on a Friday evening and clear away the next day. It's strong and the rats that take it will die in a matter of hours."