Rat catchers called out 50 times a week in Kirklees

Feb 13 2009 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

RATS and mice are the blight of people’s homes and offices.

Pest controllers are asked to remove the tiny rodents from Kirklees homes and buildings about 50 times a week.

And now a leading health organisation say one government department should take control to supervise and monitor pest control.

Kirklees Council have dealt with 258 requests for help or complaints of mice and rats inside or outside so far this year – around 50 per week.

Last year there were 2,501 requests while there were 2,686 in 2007.

Rats inside the home were most common through January to March last year.

Though the highest number of complaints outside the home were from April to June.

In Yorkshire, rat infestations jumped by almost one third last year – the biggest rise in the UK, pest controllers say.

Councils in the region handled 29,483 complaints in 2007-2008, up 30% on the previous year, said the National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA).

Barrie Sheard, from the NPTA said: “Brown rats continue to be our most important national rodent pest. They were responsible for nearly three quarters of all local authority treatments we recorded in 2007-08.