Rodent infestation is one of the major pest
problems since it is not only considered as a health
hazard but also causes damages to household,
agricultural fields and even transportation business.
On a ship, rats can cause extensive damage to cargo
and food and rat-droppings contain organism that
produce intestinal diseases (WHO, 1988). It has been
estimated that the total cost of destruction by rats in
the United States may be as high as $19 billion per
year (Pimentel et al., 2005). In India, analysis of the
information available on the damage and economic
losses caused by rodents in various crop fields,
horticulture and forestry, poultry farms, and rural
and urban dwellings and storage facilities showed
that chronic damage ranging from 2% to 15%
persisted throughout the country and up to 100% loss
of the field crop was not rare in severe damage
(Parshad, 1999). Several approaches to control rodent
infestation are being used such as environmental,
cultural, biological, mechanical and chemical
methods. In a ship, mechanical method like trapping
is a good method of keeping down the rat population
in which snap trap is more effective and practical than