Medicine Hat winning rat battle

The City of Medicine Hat says it seems to be winning its war against rats after dozens were found in a local landfill this summer.

The infestation was discovered last month, but the city's waste manager says they haven't come across any dead rats since Aug. 30.

Ed Jollymore says poison and other measures are working well.

"It's a little too early just yet to be too jubilant and to do a happy dance, but it is certainly making us feel very confident that using the approach that we did and the protocol and the bait and keeping the rats really comfortable for the time that they were feeding was the right choice," he said.

Jollymore says there is still a lot of work to do before the city can claim victory.

"The population is dying off but we need to continue to monitor very closely as some rats will become bait-wise and they'll avoid the bait, or you know there could be new litters that have been born and are still developing," he said.

Jollymore says in a couple of weeks crews will dig through the landfill to see if there are other colonies.