Unintended consequences - urban services department
Found this little gem on the
UK Daily Mail as well:
Dawn of the Super Rat... and blame the end of weekly rubbish collections
The demise of weekly rubbish collections has helped create a new breed of 'super rat', vermin control experts warned.
With many councils now removing bin bags only once a fortnight in order to meet Government-imposed recycling targets, a new type of bait-resistant rodent has evolved among the millions of tons of rubbish left rotting in streets and gardens.
Around one third of the 376 local authorities in England and Wales are now only picking up household waste and recyclable rubbish on alternate weeks - with the rest expected to follow suit within a few years.
But the strategy has given rise to an explosion in rat numbers foraging among the bags of decomposing food which pile up during the long stretches between collection days.
Scientist Martina Flynn, who has been commissioned by the British Pest Control Association to find new ways of combating the menace, said: 'If piles of rubbish are left out for two week - or even longer during holiday periods - that's exactly what they need to survive and flourish.
'Rats are becoming harder to control, because they know food is easy to find and will eat that rather than poisoned bait. They are acquiring a behavioural resistance which means they won't eat what's in the bait box.
Houses are much smaller 'over there' so the idea of keeping the garbage indoors is not an option. Wonder why the garbage services don't take some of the money they save and buy everbody rodent-proof cans. We use galvanised metal cans in the barn for our grain and seeds and have szero problems with rodents while bags of feed left out get 'shopped' in a few days.
A bit more from the article:
And rats are getting bigger, with giants of the species - bloated by their ever-richer diet of processed food from overflowing bins - growing to more than 1ft in length.
Environmental scientist Doretta Cocks, who runs the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: 'Recycling is good in principle, but householders are not getting the service they have paid for in their council tax.
'We should be concerned with the environment we are creating as a result of these measures and act before we have an insurmountable pest problem leading to a 21st Century plague.'
Hey, if the Moose-limbs don't get them, the giant rats will...
Sure sucks to be a European right now.
Posted by DaveH at September 18, 2006 9:44 PM
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