HEATWAVE RAT ATTACK
Four-foot long, climbing up toilets and 1,000 in one room – pest exterminators reveal the worst rats they’ve seen
SUMMER is almost upon us but the heat isn't always a good thing - it could mean an upturn in the amount of rats plaguing the nation.
The disease-ridden rodents can grow up to four feet long - twice the size of a typical house cat - and during warm spells last year they stole entire loaves of bread and got into houses via toilets after swimming through sewers.
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Experts say there could now be as many as 120 million rats in the UK - and believe that the number of rodents can rise alarmingly during the summer.
The rodents carry up to 60 diseases that can be transmitted to humans through direct contact with their droppings and saliva - or by bites and scratches.
The moment a greedy rat pulls off raid on a bird feeder — hanging on by a single claw
These include salmonella and Weil’s disease - a bacterial infection that can lead to organ failure and brain damage.
Here pest controllers reveal some of the worst things they've seen over the years.
The four foot super rat
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Andy Hill, a pest controller at the Edinburgh-based , told the Sun Online that he found a four foot rat on a call-out.
"Thankfully it was already dead - but we measured it and found it was 130cm long from the head to the tip of it's tail - that's just over four foot," he says.
Andy believes the reason rats are getting bigger is that they're living longer and have a better food source.
"Bins in many areas are now only emptied fortnightly - leaving the rats lots of time to munch on rubbish leftovers - he says.
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And controllers are struggling to cope with the problem - with some saying they've noticed a staggering 35 per cent rise in the rat population.
Andy says he's cleared numerous areas of rats - only to see them reappear a few weeks later.
Last year his phone rang almost non-stop as the city became heavily-infested during the heatwave - just weeks before thousands of tourists descend on the Scottish capital for the Fringe Festival.
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"They were all over the city - and this was a problem that was just getting worse," he says.
"You saw them in daylight and in gardens which was previously quite rare.
"It's likely the heat and the fact they need to find new water supplies drove them above ground."
Although, he says, every infestation is different, Andy has gone to numerous houses and businesses that have had between 50-100 rats living and breeding there.
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Coming in through toilets and stealing loaves of bread
Andy was called to a house where a man had left a loaf of bread in a room for a few minutes and came back to find it completely gone.
After questioning his family who had no idea what had happened to the food, he gave Andy a call - who discovered a rat had stolen it and hidden it slice by slice behind the oven.
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And watch out when you sit on the loo - Mike Flynn, who works for , tells Sun Online that he was called to a home where a rat had climbed in through the toilet.
You'd think the creatures might drown, but they can scale up pipes with ease, breathe underwater for three minutes and tread water for three days straight.
"It's not something that happens on a regular basis - but I have seen this a few times in my 40-year-career," he says.
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Mike has also seen rats thriving in some of the most hostile environments - including a car exhaust pipe.
"There was a case on an industrial estate where workers were taking them home in their cars," he says.
"They were living in the car park and managed to sneak into the car exhausts.
"They are extremely smart animals, and very opportunistic in their search for cover, food and water.
"However, they won't usually attack humans unless they are backed into a corner and feel threatened."
Stealing pig food and exploding in numbers
Alec Minter, director of , went to a pet food warehouse which was infested with almost a thousand rats.
"They were running all over the place, climbing up the walls and breaking into the food bags and eating it," he recalls.
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Richard Harvey, a pest controller for 33 years with East Anglian Pest Control, had a similar experience, finding hundreds of rats living in chicken sheds.
"There were so many rats that eventually the sheds had to be pulled down to sort out the problem."
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Female brown rats can mate up to 500 times with various males during a six-hour period.
They do this 15 times per year - so if left to breed unchecked they can produce as many as 2,000 descendants in their two-year lifespan.
How to rat-proof your home
Keeping your home safe from rats can be tricky - as Andy Hill of Wee Critters Pest Control says "if they want to get in, they'll get in" and bigger rats can even chew through brick,. But there are various things you can do to minimise the risk.
- Inspect properties thoroughly and seal up any external gaps, holes or crevices, for example air vents or holes in drains that could provide rats with a way.
- If you feed birds in your garden then exercise caution - keep the areas around feeders clean and don't leave bags of feed out in the garden.
- Keep your garden tidy to lower the risk of sites rats can nest in - clear away any debris or piles of wood and cut back any overgrowth.
- Avoid leaving bin bags of rubbish outside if possible, and always close the lid of your wheelie bin - also check it for any holes at the bottom rats can sneak in to.
- Always contact pest control if you think you have a problem.
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Richard has also caught rats that are twice the size of a normal brown rat, particularly on farms where they break into the bags of high-protein food given to pigs to make them larger for meat.
Mutant rats are resistant to poison
Now, the main issue facing pest controllers is the fact that some rats have become resistant to poisons.
Normally, exterminators use poisons called anticoagulants which are mixed with the food used as bait and take around 12-18 hours to kill the rodent.
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However, rats in some places - including Central London and the Welsh Boarder - have developed a genetic mutation that has left them poison resistant.
Andy says this is down to the fact that the shop-bought products people tend to use aren't normally strong enough to kill a rat.
If a pregnant rat consumes it and her and her babies survive, the litter can be born with a resistance to the poison as the bacteria in their bodies will change to make it less effective - similar to when humans take antibiotics too often.
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Now pest controllers are having to use traditional traps instead of poison to ensnare rats.
The process is much more time-consuming and some rats have even developed the ability to avoid traps.