A 76-year-old woman living at Block 32, New Market Road in Chinatown has reportedly caught more than 10 rats in just three weeks as residents continue to deal with a rodent problem that has persisted for months.
The elderly cleaner, identified by her surname Xie, told Shin Min Daily News, as reported by AsiaOne, that she began taking matters into her own hands after repeatedly seeing rats outside her fifth-floor flat.
Her homemade bait? Fried anchovies, duck bones and oyster sauce.
According to the report, Xie uses the ingredients with sticky rat traps, usually placing two or three traps at a time. On one occasion, she reportedly set a trap at about 2am and found two rats caught by the time she got up at around 5am.
Rats reportedly appearing in corridors and homes
Xie said she has lived in the block for decades and rarely encountered rats on the upper floors despite the hawker centre downstairs.
That changed late last year.
Residents reportedly began noticing rats running through corridors, chewing on objects and creating hygiene concerns. Xie said she sometimes encounters the rodents when she leaves home at around 4am or 5am, while her home security camera has also captured rats moving along the top of her iron gate.
Another resident told Shin Min that a rat had even entered his home, although he managed to chase it out. He said he now keeps his doors and windows tightly shut when he leaves.
Businesses on the second floor have also reportedly taken precautions. One hardware-store owner said he had seen large rats outside his shop and placed boards around gaps beneath metal racks to prevent the rodents from entering or nesting.
Town council says weekly pest control is being carried out
The rat problem is not being left entirely to residents.
A spokesperson for Jalan Besar Town Council told Shin Min Daily News that weekly pest-control operations are being conducted in the area and that residents’ feedback had been noted.
The town council also said notices had been put up advising residents against gathering in an open area on the fourth floor. The matter was referred to police over potential illegal assemblies and gatherings, with increased patrols planned.
AsiaOne said it had separately reached out to Jalan Besar Town Council for comment.
NEA warns that rats can multiply quickly
The situation also comes amid Singapore’s broader efforts to tackle rat infestations.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) says rats are commonly attracted to places where food, water and shelter are available. It warns that even a small infestation can grow into a serious problem because rats reproduce rapidly.
NEA’s current guidance advises residents to keep their homes clean and clutter-free, dispose of rubbish properly in sealed bins, store food in tightly covered containers and seal gaps or holes that rats could use as entry points.
Importantly, NEA advises members of the public not to attempt to catch or handle rats themselves. Residents who spot rats are encouraged to report sightings through the OneService app and, where possible, provide the location, time, number of rats observed and photographs or videos.
Singapore has stepped up rat-control enforcement
The Chinatown case comes against a wider national effort to tackle rodent problems.
NEA reported that more than 1,000 enforcement actions were jointly taken with the Singapore Food Agency in 2024 over rat-related lapses—almost double the 670 actions recorded in 2023. Nearly half of the 2024 enforcement actions involved poor refuse management.
By early 2026, NEA said the average number of rat burrows detected during its surveillance cycles had fallen from about 4,900 in 2025 to about 2,900 in the January-February and March-April 2026 cycles.
However, the agency noted that most detected burrows were still found in public housing estates, highlighting why individual cases such as the one at New Market Road remain a concern.
NEA also said about 260 enforcement actions were jointly taken by NEA and SFA against premises owners for rat-related lapses between January and March 2026, with about 150 involving poor refuse management.
The bigger issue may be food and shelter
While one resident believes eating activity downstairs may be connected to the recent increase in rats, that remains a resident’s observation—not an officially established cause of the infestation.
NEA says rats thrive when they have access to food, water and shelter, and stresses that controlling them requires a community-wide effort.
The agency recommends proper disposal of food waste, keeping refuse bins covered, reducing clutter and repairing defects or gaps that could provide rats with access or nesting areas.
For premises experiencing infestations, NEA recommends engaging a licensed Vector Control Operator for sustained rat surveillance and control.
For residents at Block 32, however, the unusual story of a 76-year-old grandmother setting traps in the early hours has become one of the most striking details of an ongoing neighbourhood pest problem.
And while her anchovy-and-duck-bone bait may have helped her catch numerous rats, authorities’ guidance makes one point clear: long-term prevention depends on removing food sources, blocking entry points and tackling the infestation at its source—not simply catching individual rats.
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