Hawaii — urban Honolulu in particular — has faced a perennial problem with pest control, and a persistent rodent infestation is no small part of the concern. A concerted effort by state, county and private entities, especially in the tourism sector, is needed to manage the situation before it damages the islands’ image.

The state’s feral mongoose population is an artifact of earlier pest-control efforts. They were introduced 130 years ago as a predator against the rats that were consuming the sugar cane. Nobody considered that rats are nocturnal while the mongoose is a day creature, so that was a lost cause.

Budget cuts in recent years have diminished the state Department of Health’s pest and vector control function: There are no longer state staffers dispatched for eradication duty. Whether that’s a primary reason or it’s due to some other cause, a surge in the number of rats has been noted in Waikiki, where a rebounding tourism industry has brought more visitors — and more fuel for the problem.

Health Department officials said when recession-era reductions in force were ordered, the crews seemed to be a sensible place to cut, because a healthy number of private pest-control companies could respond to calls from individual businesses.

Rather than resume funding this function, the department should continue its monitoring to minimize the threat of disease to public health. But this situation also should be addressed through the involvement of private partners, especially representatives of the tourism industry.

It’s clearly a liability to the state’s bedrock industry to allow this problem to fester unchecked. Nothing will wreck the Hawaii brand faster than mounting reports, disseminated through mass media, of rodents skittering along parks, hotels and restaurants.

The stories are already piling up. Spot checks with Waikiki residents by Star-Advertiser writer Dan Nakaso yielded observations by Keli‘i Mahoe, who put the estimated monthly count at 20 rats seen darting across the sidewalk where she walks her dog along the Ala Wai Canal. The situation has "definitely gotten worse" in the last 18 months that she’s lived in Waikiki, Mahoe said.

Bob Iinuma, a resident visiting a Waikiki friend, said he’s seen more rats by the Honolulu Zoo, and that they’re getting bolder in their search for food. "By the zoo I’ve seen 15, 20 at one time," Iinuma said. Those are not pictures that fit neatly in a tourism marketing plan.

Health Department officials still see a role for their agency in this issue, but more along the lines of public education; there is also DOH technical expertise to share with county vector-control crews and private pest-control companies. That seems appropriate, and it is encouraging to see that discussions are ongoing about how to attack this problem more through prevention, since taxpayer resources for crisis response are so limited.

Part of the challenge they’ve identified lies in better control of refuse disposal, since that’s largely the food source that attracts the vermin. Changing to more insulated disposal containers and practices is a mission that needs to be promoted, for the operations of private establishments as well as public sites.

It would be a good idea to have representatives of the tourism industry involved in the discussion about better controls of the rodent infestation. It’s a problem that surely will remain for the long term, but it needs to be an element kept in the background, and not on the front pages.