Rats feed off UK slump as trash mounts

For British rats, the worst of times has turned out to be the best of times. The vermin more associated with the Dickensian era than modern Britain are thriving, with shuttered shops and half-built housing sites to live in, rotting piles of uncollected garbage for dinner and fewer exterminators sent out to kill them.
“Sometimes I drive into the car park and there are at least 20 of them in the bins,’’ said Paul Hood, 46, a north London resident. “You see them running away in the headlights. During the day, they just sit in the bushes sunbathing.’’
As the biggest economic bust in 60 years fostered a boom for rodents, municipalities were called an estimated 700,000 times to deal with infestations in the last 12 months, compared with 650,000 the previous year, said Peter Crowden, chairman of National Pest Technicians Association.
The rat population has swollen by 13% this year to over 50 million, one for every person living in England, according to an industry consensus cited by Crowden. Rats and mice are capable of spreading over 35 diseases, including a fever inducing nausea and muscle aches passed to humans either via a bite or the rodent’s urine. “The government needs to look at this,’’ Crowden said. “Budgets are being cut. If they don’t do something, it’s going to be a serious public-health risk.’’
Jason Goodright, 36, a neighbour of Hood at Larch Close in north London, said, “People are frightened and just throw rubbish from a distance onto the ground, making the situation worse.’’ “Wherever there are empty properties, there’s a problem,’’ said Kevin Higgins, a spokesman for the trade group British Pest Control Association. “It’s not just rodents, it’s cockroaches as well. It’ll have a big effect as time goes on.’’
And it’s not just affecting vacated bu i l d i n g s. Gurinder Sahni, director of M a s t e r T raders, which exports ethnic food to mainland Europe from London, said he’s lost about £500 worth of goods, including almonds, fruit juice and even palm oil to rats during the past year. As the downturn bites, consumers and businesses are looking for ways to cut exterminator costs, including trying home-grown solutions, not always successfully. Hood in north London relies on his two smooth-coat Jack Russell terriers to get the job done. “They catch one every other day,’’ he said. “They kill more than the pest controller,’’ he said.
Damage to infrastructure caused by rats, which can harm buildings by burrowing underneath their foundations, costs the UK economy £209 million a year, according to the Chartered Institute of Environment Health. “If we aren’t careful, the recession will play into the hands of both rats and mice,’’ Crowden said. BLOOMBERG