POSTMAN RAT!

Bold rodents creep into homes through letterboxes… and toilets

THErE’s an old adage that you’re never more than six feet from a rat.

But now there’s some new information that’s even more chilling.

Pest experts say the rodents have gained a new confidence to find ways into our homes – including creeping in through letterboxes and even up through toilets.

Pest controllers report that call-outs to deal with the creatures in the past month have soared by more than a fifth – 22 per cent – to a six-year high.

A single mum in Dover, Kent, was shocked recently when she went to the toilet only to find a rat sitting at the bottom of the bowl staring up at her.

she told how she feared having a heart attack and rushed out, closing the door behind her, to alert the local council.

Experts at rentokil added that the nocturnal animals have become ‘so brave’ they go scavenging for food in broad daylight.

The nation’s 120million brown rats are also looking for somewhere cosy to nest over winter, with homes the prime target as residents turn up their heating. The firm quizzed 121 of its pest controllers, with six in ten warning they were seeing rats which did not turn tail and run, with some standing their ground and eyeballing them.

They believed the lockdown period from

March to June had caused rodents to become ‘more confident’, with rats entering homes through toilets and letterboxes.

Last year’s mild winter boosted their numbers, said Paul Blackhurst, head of the technical academy at the UK’s biggest pest control company. ‘rodent populations increased to the extent nests are over-spilling,’ he added.

‘rats are more often seen during the day if the population has been disturbed and forced to move on, and if the population gets too large then the young males will be ejected from their clan.’