Britain risks 'rat plague' after sweltering summer, experts say

According to experts, we are seeing more rodents and they are getting bigger thanks to an increased access to food waste.

Kieran Sampler, who runs VermiCure Pest Control and is founder of the Yorkshire Rat Pack – a Facebook group with 114,000 followers, said they are regularly catching rats 20 inches and longer.

Mr Sampler told the Telegraph: “There is a lot more waste now than 20 years ago. There are more takeaways, more half-eaten food.

"There are a lot more high rise flats now with communal bin areas and this brings a lot more rats."

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LBC recently heard from residents of a block of flats, managed by one of the UK’s biggest housing associations, that rats have “take[n] over the whole building” after the landlord failed to tackle the problem for a year.

Shocking footage showed dozens of rodents scurrying up the building’s internal pipework and into the walls of the 12 flats at Crystal Court in Hackney.

Toby Bacon, a pest controller for Essex-based Town and Country Pests, described the footage as “one of the worst cases” he’d ever seen.

Current estimates say the UK rat population stands at around 250 million. Some carry illnesses like Weil's disease, which can be transmitted to humans.

Mr Bacon said: “Weil's disease, which is passed through rodent urine and can spread to humans via cuts or [if] ingested through your mouth or through your nose… if contracted and not dealt with immediately after showing symptoms, could kill you."