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Pests such as rats and mosquitoes cause big problems especially when you’re a refugee. Field Ready recently completed a housing assessment in Zaatari village in Jordan. One of the main problems identified were rats, which carry infectious diseases, trigger allergies and exposure to droppings can cause asthma in children. There are reports of children being bitten while they sleep, as shown illustrated in BBC World’s story “The refugee children bitten by rats” where Ahmed, a young boy is awoken to rats biting his face.
Rat populations increase when there are large amounts of garbage as well as the lack of infrastructure and solid housing, where it is easy for rats to creep into the homes. Without having adequate rat control, collect trash regularly or build more concrete housing, Field Ready found a cost-effective and attainable solution to catch these pests using an upcycling method.
To create these rat traps, the only materials needed are a plastic bottle, two pencils, two rubber bands, a paperclip, and thread. Essentially, once the bottle is made into a trap, food is placed inside and when a rat enters snaps closed. Building instructions are available here.
Recently, over 50 traps were made in Zaatari village and more than 20 children and five volunteers were trained in production. There are some challenges that were identified, such as some bottles not properly closing because of weakened plastic or the design is not implemented correctly. Although these traps are a remedy to the rat infestations, the problem will not be eradicated without the necessary means needed to control the garbage collection in the camps. This simple rat trap can be implemented and adopted in other contexts.
Field Ready is also creating mosquito traps that are cost-effective and efficient. These mosquito traps are easy to build and have thus far received positive feedback. They work by using the CO2 produced by yeast swimming in a sugar solution to attract mosquitoes in a bottle trap. You find the building instructions here.
There are improvements that need to be made to the design to ensure that the traps work effectively. So far, over 100 have been built in Zaatari as well as in the Children’s Museum of Jordan during International Labor Day. In addition to teaching people how to create mosquito traps, an educational element is combined in the training sessions for teens and children on environmental awareness and health problems caused by mosquitoes.
We have had success introducing and implementing both traps, but Field Ready needs support to establish a large-scale project. These ideas are not only highly feasible to create with limited resources, but is also interactive and empowers children to find solutions to problems affecting them. This will enable us to educate and train youth in Jordan how to build these traps and continue to find solutions to problems affecting them.