Pest control experts say they are being called out more often and have explained what is going on
A father and son working in their family garden found a ‘monster’ rat measuring 52 centimetres—20 inches. Ethan Squire, who is about to go to Bristol University to study music, says his dad discovered it while they were in the garden in Minster, Sheppey.
The 18-year-old said: “We have never had rats before, so I have no idea where this one has come from. “It must have been at least 32 centimetres without the tail and with it, about 52 centimetres [20 inches].” He took a photo of the rodent but added: “The way the rat is halfway off the shovel does not do it justice.” It comes after a 22-inch supersized rat, thought to be the largest captured in the UK, was found in Yorkshire at the start of last month. These finds dwarf the average UK brown rat, which grows between 15 and 27 centimetres – between six and 10.5 inches – from head to tail.
Pestaway Ltd boss Phil Golding has been a self-employed exterminator for more than two decades said: “I have not seen one bigger than the 16-incher that latched onto my foot in 2016. It stunk and had flies all over it, so I had thought it was dead. But when I tried to approach, the monster bit me. “Luckily, I had steel-toe caps on and was able to hit it with a metal bar. But genetically, rats are not supposed to grow that big, and I am not seeing abnormally large rats myself. “We aren’t in the rodent season yet, but in 2024, we had more calls than in 2023. That year, we had also seen an upsurge in 2022. I think that it is caused by food waste and food waste bins, which attract rodents.”
Matthew O’Donnell, 33, who has run Pest Control for six years, says people may be seeing more rats because their natural habitats are being built on. He said: “When housing developments are built, it pushes rats closer towards people’s homes. I think that is happening across the country, so people are seeing rats more frequently. “People are also feeding wildlife, like birds, in their gardens more frequently and that encourages them as well.” A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Direct Line home insurance found local authorities across the country responded to 52 more rat or mouse-related call-outs per day last year, compared with 2022. Council control services were called out to more than 290,000 homes across the UK last year, up 3% on the year before and an increase of 9% on 2022.
British Pest Control Association (BPCA) technical manager Niall Gallagher said members of the BPCA are also being called out to more rodent problems. He said: “We are finding more and more of our typical [rodent] seasons are becoming blended. “Usually, you would find rodent season would be over your colder months, where natural food sources tend to die down and they’ll move closer to homes. But we are finding now that actually we have people dealing with rats all year round.”