Disease-carrying rats are a human health problem, Olympia pest control specialist Billy Olesen said. “We don’t have a rodenticide problem, we have a rodent problem,” he told the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. During the moratorium, the Washington State Academy of Sciences would study whether there are alternatives to rodenticides. Olesen said in an interview the bill targets the most effective and most affordable options for rodent control. It doesn’t kill rodents, only temporarily limits reproduction and is more expensive than rodenticides, Olesen said.