Monday, October 27, 2008

Rat infestation threatens UK

Rat infestation threatens UK

Britain now has more rats than people, with the trend set to continue unless households cut down on food waste, it has been claimed.

Experts claim councils which have stopped weekly bin collections are to blame, along with mild winters and last year's floods.

The worst affected city is York, which has seen its rat population rise by 208 per cent in a year. Carlisle has seen a change of 142 per cent.

Other areas to see a significant increase in infestation include Exeter (60 per cent) and Salford (40 per cent).

Rentokil estimates there are 65 to 80 million rats in Britain compared to around 60m humans.

National Pest Technicians Association director Peter Crowden told The Daily Mirror: "In 30 years I've never known such a big rat population – and there will be an epidemic if people don't reduce food waste.

"Fortnightly bin collections now mean it's vital we recycle. Just putting extra food scraps on compost heaps means fantastic breeding grounds for rats to spread disease."

Nationwide, call-outs by pest control units rose by 17 per cent.

Out of 50 local authorities asked if they had seen an increase in call-outs, 39 admitted they had.

Westminster was one of the few have seen a reduction in the problem, although it has only seen call-outs cut by 10 - from 804 in 2006-07 to 794 in 2007-08.

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