Bats, mice and rats... the real classroom pests
Health fears as schools are hit by vermin invasion
SCOTLAND’S schools are being overrun by a growing plague of vermin, new figures show.
Pest control teams were called out to nurseries, primaries and secondary schools 3,141 times in 2013-14 – a huge rise from the previous year.
Some of the most stomachchurning cases included maggots found in a sandpit, mouse droppings in a fridge and cockroaches in the changing rooms.
In one Fife school, rats startled pupils by running through their home economics class, while rodents were found breeding under the stage in the main hall.
Elsewhere, teaching staff reported problems with ‘green insects with stingers’, ants, fleas, silverfish, earwigs, mites, slugs, woodlice, bats and ‘worm-like creatures’.
Schools even reported sightings of a venomous false widow spider in Fife – and polecats in Shetland.
Last night, teaching unions said the vermin invasions threatened to disrupt pupils’ education and called for an investigation.
Julian Stanley, chief executive of teachers’ network Education Support Partnership, said: ‘ No parent would want their child to be taught in dangerous surroundings. An investigation would help everyone understand what preventative action will be most effective in the future.’
Critics also raised fears that children’s health could be put at risk. Anne-Marie O’Leary, editor-in-chief of the Netmums parenting advice website, said: ‘Many mums would be shocked to discover their child’s school or nursery has a pest control problem with rats or cockroaches.’
The Scottish Mail on Sunday obtained up-to-date figures on pest call-outs from 29 of Scotland’s 32 councils. The data, disclosed under Freedom of Information laws, show control teams have been summoned 7,550 times in two and a half years.
The number of cases rose by 16 per cent between 2013 and 2014.
Fife Council reports included bats in a classroom, mouse droppings in a fridge, a ‘rat infestation’ under a stage and maggots in the sand tray of a nursery.
In Aberdeenshire, schools reported a dead rat, mice in a playroom, earwigs in a maths cupboard and birds flying around a dining room, while rabbits dug up the running track at one Moray school.
Most worrying of all was a report from Lochgelly High School of a false widow spider, whose bite can cause swelling and chest pains. Figures for the first six months of 2015 indicate a continuing rise in pest problems, up from an average of 60 cases per week in 2014 to 62 in the first six months of this year.
North Lanarkshire Council reported the highest rates, with more than 1,000 incidents between 2013-14 and 2014-15.
John Davison, chief executive of the National Association of Pest Technicians, warned problems were likely to get even worse. He said: ‘Rats since last year have been particularly high and bedbugs seem to be going epidemic at the moment.’
Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said the pest statistics were worrying. He added: ‘It is unacceptable for a learning environment to be plagued by rats and mice.’