A new plan to eliminate rats in Medicine Hat has officially started.

In what the city is calling ‘Operation Haystack’; 15 hay bales have been set up in areas where rats have been spotted, with hopes food will lure the pests to the poison.

Ed Jollymore, manager of solid waste for the city of Medicine Hat, says they still have not determined how the rats got there.

“You know the rats may have jumped off vehicle and went across country to the landfill,” Jollymore speculates, “it may have been material that might have been brought in. We are a regional landfill.”

Because rats reproduce so quickly, Jollymore stresses the problem must be taken care of as soon as possible.