Rat infestations have nearly doubled across parts of the West Midlands in the last 12 months with experts blaming the rise on milder winters.
Environmental health officers have been inundated with thousands of complaints from residents and businesses.
In Dudley, the council is responding to 40 to 50 complaints every week while in Cannock Chase there were 273 reports over a four-month period.
Officials from Dudley Council said the number of calls received over rats had been rising steadily over the past four years.
They say the average number of complaints received each week has gone up from between 20 and 30 over the four weeks to between 40 and 50 this year.
Dudley Council spokesman Phil Parker said: “There is no doubt the winters are getting milder and this inevitably means the rats are breeding for longer.”
It is a similar story in Wal-sall and numbers are up by 38 per cent in Cannock Chase.
Over the period from August to November 2007 there were 273 complaints compared with just 197 in the same period in 2006.
There has been a gradual increase in Wolverhampton. In 2004 there were 2,182 reports compared to 2,486 already this year.
City council spokesman Tim Clark said: “The number of calls to the council regarding rats has risen every year since 2004.”
Stafford Borough Council environmental health manager Mark Street said: “Looking back at our annual figures over the last few years, they appear largely stable.
Numbers in Sandwell have also remained constant.
The council has received around 4,100 calls each year for the last three years.
7 Comments
The collection of rubbish just once every two weeks also contibutes to the problem
Nice how the council play down the issue. Rubbish collections and littering around fast food outlets have contributed to this.
Well done once again.
I’m surprised no one has blamed ‘The Public’ in West Brom for this!
bring back the rat catchers.
Excuse me…but dont blame the weather..lol
Blame the fact that a select few cant be bothered to dispose of food and rubbish correctly.
Rats have lived all over this land for years..and people belive it or not do feed them..think their cute.
As fro breeding for longer…erm rats breed all year…not just when the sun shines..
milder winters… nonsense.
poor waste management, overcrowding and the consequential squalour increases rat populations. They can survive the harshest of winters otherwise they’d be extinct.
if people use the bins and recycling as they should - this wuld not cause any reason to attract the rats, its just a lazy excuse for people to moan about ‘bin collections’ - for the first time that i have ever noticed, i had the pleasure of a rat in my back garden only yesterday and there is nothing outside to attract them - i dont even leave bird food out anymore but rats are like any other animal - they breed and they will always be here