Businesses are increasingly taking the law into their own hands when it comes to dealing with rats and mice because certified rat catchers take too long and are too expensive, food and product safety inspectors have told the Financieele Dagblad.

In 2024, more restaurants and other food outlets had to be closed down because of pests, including rodents, the NVWA said.

Warmer winters and stricter European rules (IPM), which ban the use of pesticides, are making the problem worse, particularly in urban areas, rat catcher Richard Piké told the paper.

Under the IPM rules, which became effective in 2017, using poison and glue traps have been banned in favour of prevention and non-chemical substances. Pesticides may be used as a last resort in exceptional circumstances.

“With IPM, you have to comply with technical requirements. You have to remove the rats’ habitat around the building, close it off, and then when it’s very bad you can use a pesticide for a short period. That is a lengthy process, and an expensive one that not everyone can afford,” Piké said.

The NVWA has had signals that businesses are taking steps to solve the problem themselves, enabled by easy online access to poison.

If companies are caught, they will be warned and if they persist, fined. “The use of glue traps which cause unnecessary suffering to the animal, will result in a criminal charge,” an NVWA spokesman said.

The Amsterdam health authority GGD said the rules are forcing businesses to do more to combat pests. “That is a good thing. They will have to tell their landlord that the building needs work, for instance, or they will have to pay more attention to how they manage waste,” spokesman Dave de Jonge said.

Piké is not seeing more demand for his services, despite the stricter rules. “Hundreds of our clients have said they will buy stuff on the internet. That means people who don’t know what they are doing are putting down poison everywhere. That’s not a good idea,” he said.