As cold weather takes hold, rodents begin to seek shelter inside food-rich, warm places, and households fit the bill just perfectly.
There are now fears that a poison-resistant rodent plague of biblical proportions may be about to descend on the country, and there is no Pied Piper to stem the course of the onslaught.
Call-outs relating to the presence of rats have doubled over the past 12 months, according to pest-control experts, and they have warned of the existence of a new breed of super-rats which have developed a resistance to traditional poisons.
We have been using the same rodenticide substances sinc the 1950s, while the rats are constantly evolving and adapting to the threat.
Two generations of rat poison currently exist: The first generation include warfarin and coumatetraly. The second generation range is difenacoum, brodifacoum, flocoumafen and bromadiolone. But rats tend to develop a resistance to poison over time.
Also according to the same experts, rats are becoming bigger, and thus, crave more nourishment.
Genetically mutated rats of up to 2ft in length have recently been caught in several European locations.
A third-generation toxic substance to eliminate the super-rats has been called for, before it’s too late.