Plague of rats fuelled by rise in f ly-tipping

PEST controllers are being called out almost 160 times a week as littering and flytipping attracts a plague of rats to Scotland’s homes, gardens and streets.

More than 24,000 separate rat infestations were reported to council pest control departments over the course of only three years.

They included complaints of rats swarming over overflowing bins in the country’s cities, among dumped bags of litter and at sites plagued by fly-tipping.

In one case in Kirkintilloch, Dunbartonshire, residents reported that rats had been attracted to their street because neighbours were throwing rubbish out of their windows.

Figures published by Scotland’s councils revealed that reports of rat infestations rose by a fifth between 2015 and 2017, when 9,090 separate cases were reported across the country.

It comes after an environmental group reported that littering in Scotland had reached its worst level in ten years.

And last year, it was revealed that the country is in the grip of a fly-tipping epidemic with almost 1,000 incidents a week.

The rise of littering and dumping has been blamed for the surge in rat infestations, which account for an average of 22 incidents a day reported to council pest controllers.

Glasgow City Council recorded the most rat infestations, with 11,070 incidents logged over the three years. Renfrewshire CounScottish cil recorded 1,947 incidents and the City of Edinburgh Council saw 1,244.

The Scottish Government recently put in place a National Litter Strategy, which includes action to strengthen the deterrent effect of enforcement. But Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Mariam Mahmood warned: ‘After a decade of the SNP cutting budgets and treating local government as the poor relation, charges for waste collection have risen and this has contributed to the rise in fly-tipping incidents as people are left to deal with the consequences and costs themselves.

‘The Scottish Government need to consider whether the existing penalties are a strong enough deterrent. Fly-tipping, litter and waste is unsightly and encourages vermin. People are rightly disgusted to find their fields or streets turned into impromptu rubbish dumps.’

‘Are penalties strong enough?’