Can Brussels curb rats in its pedestrian zone while food keeps reaching the street?

Passers-by spotted several rats running through a construction pit on Brussels’ Anspachlaan on Saturday evening, 5 September, according to BRUZZ’s report the following day. The sighting near Le Grand Café comes after the City of Brussels installed 15 digital traps in the pedestrian zone this summer. It establishes that rats remain visible there; it does not establish whether their overall numbers are rising. [BRUZZ’s September report](https://www.bruzz.be/actua/milieu/rattenplaag-voetgangerszone-stop-met-voedsel-op-straat-te-gooien-2026-09-06) identifies discarded food as a continuing attraction.

For people living, working or eating in the centre, the immediate issue is the condition of a shared public space. The municipal response also reaches inside buildings: the City’s published service information says residents, landlords and businesses within its territory can request help with infestations. That gives households and hospitality operators a practical route to assistance alongside the street-level campaign. [City of Brussels service information](https://www.brussel.be/ratten-en-huiszwam-privewoningen).

The technology has a recent local history. In April, BRUZZ reported that ten trial traps at Atomiumsquare and in Laeken’s De Wand neighbourhood had caught 250 rats since early February, citing a municipal announcement. Public cleanliness alderman Anas Ben Abdelmoumen, of the Socialist Party, presented the equipment as a step forward. One advantage, he said, was that “the carcasses do not end up in public space”—an English translation of his remarks. Those figures concern the earlier trial, however, and cannot measure the pedestrian zone’s current results. [BRUZZ’s April reporting](https://www.bruzz.be/actua/samenleving/stad-brussel-versterkt-de-strijd-tegen-ratten-met-slimme-vallen-2026-04-25).

The broader question is what counts as success. A trap records animals caught, but an effective programme should also leave fewer opportunities for replacements to feed and shelter. The City’s April 2025 action plan already combined daily pest-control interventions with street cleaning, action against illegal dumping and vacant premises, and advice to residents and traders. It described food scraps as rats’ principal food source. Read against that earlier policy, the latest sightings raise a question about implementation and sustained maintenance, rather than simply whether Brussels has bought enough equipment. [Municipal action plan](https://www.brussel.be/sites/default/files/bxl/Acties%20tegen%20rattenplagen_de%20Stad%20Brussel%20schakelt%20een%20versnelling%20hoger%20%E2%80%93%20260%20interventies%20sinds%20januari.pdf).

There is also a difference between removing poison and minimising suffering. BRUZZ’s April account describes the trial devices as drowning traps. Dierenwelzijn Vlaanderen, the Flemish government’s animal-welfare service, takes a different starting point: “Use methods that are selective and cause a quick death,” its guidance says, translated from Dutch. It favours correctly used snap traps or electrocution traps over drowning. That guidance provides a relevant Belgian comparison; it is neither a response to this particular sighting nor a statement of the rules governing Brussels. [Flemish animal-welfare guidance](https://www.vlaanderen.be/dierenwelzijn/informatie-voor-lokale-overheden/diervriendelijk-beheer-van-ratten-en-muizen).

Prevention offers common ground. In its July–August 2025 municipal magazine, Brussels described a coordinated approach involving the Port of Brussels, housing provider Lakense Haard and regional waste agency Net Brussel. The same account stressed reducing access to food, water and shelter. That institutional spread helps explain why a persistent rat problem cannot sensibly be assigned only to individual litterers or only to pest-control teams: the response depends on several services and everyday behaviour working together. [The Brusseleir](https://www.brussel.be/sites/default/files/bxl/Brusseleir_208_accNL.pdf).

For residents and businesses, the City advises keeping food securely contained, respecting rubbish collection times and avoiding feeding pigeons or stray animals. Assistance can be requested through MyBXL or the municipal disinfection service. The next test is whether the pedestrian zone’s monitoring produces evidence of a sustained reduction. The sources reviewed provide no current population estimate, independently assessed results for those 15 traps, or timetable for declaring the problem controlled. Until those emerge, the equipment is an intervention whose local outcome remains to be demonstrated.