Editor's choice March 2008

Year of the Rat

A park next to Stoney Lane and in close proximity to Nelson Mandela Primary School has recently become home to a colony of rats. A regular spot used by local residents as a feeding area for feral pigeons has helped to increase the rat population in the park.

As well as encouraging large numbers of pigeons the feeding of the birds has helped to maintain and increase their population. The readily available supply of food for pigeons could not only have helped the local rat population but may have also had a detrimental effect upon other bird species as large numbers of pigeons can frighten off smaller birds.

Health

The large quantities of food left both deliberately for the birds or through littering have helped the pigeons set up permanent breeding sites. Excess food helps pigeons to breed nearly all year round. The increase in the numbers of fledglings can lead to a greater chance of mites and parasites in overcrowded breeding sites and thus increased levels of disease amongst young pigeons. Permanent breeding sites in turn attract mice and rats.

Disease

A further problem that can be caused by feral pigeons is the transmission of viruses that can be spread to other birds causing death.

Humans are also at risk from unhealthy pigeons. Pigeons can carry a number of potentially infectious diseases such as salmonella, tuberculosis and ornithosis which is a ‘flu like’ disease most commonly found in pigeon droppings.

Vermin

The feeding of the pigeons has had the added problem of encouraging vermin in the form of rats. There are an estimated 60 million rats in the UK, that’s 1 rat for every human. The average Brown Rat (rattus novegicus), also known as the ‘common’ or ‘sewer’ rat can live for up to 18 months. During their lifetime they can reproduce up to 7 times with each litter consisting of between 6 – 14 young. Their size can vary between 25cm to 45 cm and while their eyesight is not particularly good they have well-developed senses of hearing and smell.

Brown rats are omnivorous and so are quite at home eating either meat or vegetables. While they will eat leftover food they are not averse to eating dog faeces, their own droppings and even each other. A rat can eat roughly 30g of food per day, which is about 1/10 th of their average body weight.

A group of rats is called a mischief and such a group will tend to have a range of roughly 50m in diameter. Evidence of their activity can be found in the form of rat droppings, which are between 1 – 2cm long and resemble dark brown jellybeans. A further indication of their activity can be found in the smears they leave along surfaces. Rats are habitual animals and so follow specific paths, which are as a result covered in grease from their fur. Their feeding areas and rat runs will, in addition to being covered in grease, be covered in rat urine, which is secreted as they move and eat. There will normally be unusual smells.

Further evidence can be found in the form of shredded paper which rats use as nesting material. Litter provides ample sources of nesting material.

City Council Help

The City Council provide a FREE service for tackling rats, bed-bugs and cockroaches to residents in occupied domestic properties. If the problem is not rats but mice, then you can get mouse poison free of charge for the self-treating of infestations. This is available from any of the City Council’s Neighbourhood Offices.

If you believe you have rats and would like to request the services of a Pest Control Officer please call 0121 303 6993 / 6007 or email publicheath@birmingham.gov.uk.