The technology which helped allied soldiers find their way around during the Gulf War is being applied to the rather more mundane task of tracking rat extermination efforts in Bradford.

Yorkshire Water contractor Bethell is carrying out trials to see whether using the Global Positioning System (GPS) will help them record which sewers have been baited with rat poison, according to the Bradford Telegraph and Argus.

The GPS system, to be fitted on municipal pest-control vans, could be applied to accurately record the location of the 40,000 manhole covers along Bradford's 350km sewer system. Bethell said the system will identify rat "hot spots" by working out how many times each location has been baited and match this to success rates. ®

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Related Link

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Gulf War tactics could fight against city's rats