Vietnam ‘Rat King’ helps rice farmers fight costly vermin

This picture taken on November 20, 2014 shows Tran Quang Thieu, nicknamed "Rat King", talking with AFP while holding trapped rats in a field on the outskirts of Hanoi.

HANOI: Grinning widely, Tran Quang Thieu brandishes the day’s haul: 10 kilos of rats caught in rice paddies near Hanoi. A menace to Vietnam’s rice crop, the vermin are regularly trapped -- and sometimes eaten.

In his village of Van Binh, on the outskirts of Hanoi, Thieu and his team work night and day in the area’s rice paddies. They estimate 20 percent of the annual grain crop is lost to hungry rats.