By Susie Weldon

If you’re a fan of feeding garden birds, you will be alarmed by the latest survey to come out of the National Pest Technicians Association. On the other hand, if you hate the switch to fortnightly bin collections, you will probably feel vindicated.

That’s because the survey, an annual snapshot of Britain ’s rodent problem, blames the overfeeding of garden birds and more rubbish being collected fortnightly instead of weekly for being two of the main reasons why rats and mice are thriving.

The National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA) said even though the number of treatment measures taken by local authorities fell slightly last year – despite worrying rises of nearly 40% in London and 11% in Birmingham – the UK still had a serious and growing rodent problem. In the South West, the number of treatments fell by 6% (rats) and 12% (mice).

Council pest control officers say our modern lifestyles provide too much food for rodents in towns and cities. The main problems are:

• overfeeding of wild birds in domestic gardens (cited by 83% of officers);
• poor management of public sewers (55%);
• badly managed domestic waste (48%);
• insufficient compost bin security, giving easy access to rats and mice (47%)

Bristol saw a dramatic 29% increase in complaints about rats in 2007/8. But before you rush to blame Bristol’s buoyant rat population on the switch to fortnightly collection, the last year has actually seen a decline in their numbers.

The city council’s pest control team dealt with 4,669 rat infestations for the period April 2009/March 2010, compared to 4,994 in 08/09.

“We don’t know for certain the reason for this decline,” admitted a council spokesperson. “The colder winter could well have had an impact on the number of rats. The amount of available food would also have an effect – if there is less fast food and litter on the ground for them to scavenge, and if people are more careful to not leave out excess bird food in their gardens.”

It could also be a result of the council having increased its pest control officers by two last year, enabling further proactive work to be carried out across the city, she said.

“The fact that rodent problems are at least as bad today as they were 10 years ago is a matter of particular public health concern. Actual infestation levels are almost certainly considerably higher than local authority records suggest,” said NPTA chairman Peter Crowden.

NPTA agrees that feeding birds, especially in winter, can be vital to their survival but advises using bird feeders and bird tables. “Providing grain or waste food for birds on the ground almost certainly does more to support local rodents (not to mention pigeons) than garden birds in many cases,” said Mr Crowden.

He said compost bins should be mounted on solid surfaces and covered. Household waste put out for collection should be kept in secure containers – such as properly designed wheelie bins – rather than in plastic bags or boxes.

“No one can afford to assume rats and mice aren’t there and don’t need effective professional control simply because they aren’t that obvious,” he said, adding that one pair of rats could be responsible for boosting the rat population by 3,000 a year.

Bristol City Council provides a free service to residents to deal with rats in a domestic property. Call 0117 922 2500.

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