File picture shows a ship unloading at the Jeddah Islamic Port.

There is more than one story behind the recent vermin plague that is ailing Jeddah nowadays, but many are pointing to Indian vessels and ships docked at the city’s port as the main culprits.

One of the reasons behind this theory is that these rodents concentrate in bigger numbers at Jeddah’s coastal areas after boarding off the ships, where they breed extensively. One pair of mice can build an empire of 2,000 offspring in just one year.

Rodents in general play a key role in spreading more than 20 different strains of viruses and bacterial diseases, with the most fatal being typhoid fever, cholera, rabies, rat fever, tuberculosis and scabies.

They also cause significant financial losses because they can invade and raid entire goods warehouses and storage places.

Jeddah’s Corniche and the southern neighborhoods are abundant with underground water, making these areas most vulnerable to the invasion of the hordes of flies, rats and other vermin.

Adding to the problem, the old buildings in these neighborhoods are also infested with all kinds of pests, in addition to open garbage containers and food leftovers.

Bassam Akhdar, a staffer at Jeddah municipality, said: “The causes are clear — lack of hygiene in general and the poor infrastructure of the sewage networks. The methods used to combat these vermin and rodents are still primitive and proved to have failed.”

Many doctors and health and environment experts warned against the dangers of these kinds of pests in the old neighborhoods of Jeddah and the Corniche.

Khaled Abu Samra, environment expert and laboratory analyst in Jeddah, said the spread of mice imposes many health hazards on the human health.

“In time, the size of one mouse may grow to reach the size of a cat if food and shelter are provided. The frightening thing about this is the spread of fatal diseases among children who are used to playing in the old and narrow alleys of the old neighborhoods.

“Mice, rodents and vermin become active at night in these places and they carry on them many germs and viruses that can easily be transmitted to humans, children in particular.”

[wpResize]