âA constant worryâ â Man scared to open front door as rat reports rise

A man has said he lives with âconstant worryâ about rats getting into his home as reports of infestations across Cardiff rise.
David Armstrong, 62, who has lived in the city for 15 years, said the rat problem near his home was âdisgustingâ and âquite scaryâ.
Cardiff councilâs pest control services saw a 10% increase in call-outs to rats last year, while a private pest control company said the rat situation in the city was the worst they had seen in 36 years of business.
The council said rats were âadaptable, highly mobile and breed rapidlyâ, adding that city residents should ensure all waste was disposed of correctly.
The British Pest Control Association said there were anecdotal reports of rat increases in towns and cities across the UK.
Mr Armstrong, who lives in Grangetown, said the rodents had been a particular problem near his home for the past two years since communal rubbish bins overflowed onto the floor.

âOne of the maintenance guys called me over, when he cleared the rubbish up and he lifted up a concrete slab,â said Mr Armstrong.
âInside was a plastic carrier bag with about ten baby rats in it.â
The rubbish has since been cleared up by the housing association responsible for the upkeep of Mr Armstrongâs estate.
But Mr Armstrong showed BBC News what appeared to be a rat burrow in the area around the communal bin.

âThereâs children who play about here and they could be picking stuff up that the rats have been on,â he said.
âI have seen the bin men chasing rats up the street trying to stand on them.
âIf Iâm out at my car, I have to close the [front] door behind me.
âMy main fright is them getting into the house. I just donât want it⊠I donât want them here full stop.
âIn a country like Wales you shouldnât have to live with this on our doorsteps, with a constant worry about a rat getting in the house.
âOnce they get in and you canât get them out, thatâs a big problem.â
Private pest control companies in the city have also reported more sightings.
Dalton Pest Services Ltd said it had âseen a huge increase in rodent call-outsâ in the city, and said âthe phone hasnât stopped ringing with distressed customersâ.
Gareth Davies, from Pest and Property Solutions, said in 36 years of business he had never received so many call-outs to rats.
âWe still have a massive rubbish problem, certainly in Cardiff I can speak of,â he said.
âPeople discard rubbish in sort of hedgerows, throw stuff out of cars, part-eaten food.
âThereâs rubbish mounted up where the refuse people donât get to.â
Mr Davies said seagulls and rats attacked bin bags on the streets, creating food sources, and said higher temperatures due to climate change meant rats could now âbreed all year roundâ.
He also questioned the effectiveness of some rat poison available to purchase in shops and online, warning some products were âjust not strong enoughâ.
âRats get a bad rapâ
But for others, living alongside rats is the price you pay for city life.
Neil Harris, who has lived in Cathays since 2018, and said the creatures get a âbad rapâ.
âThey are literally everywhere,â he said.

âI have them in the garden, I saw one just over there running across the street at the end of last week.
âI would suggest thereâs probably rats looking at us right as we speak.
âIâve had dead rats underneath my floorboards. Iâve had the nuisance, or at least the landlord had the nuisance, of trying to get rid of them.
âBut we donât complain because we recognise that itâs part and parcel of living in the area.
âWe can manage the problem, but we wonât get rid of them, and theyâre not the beasties people think they are.â
How many rats are there?
According to the RSPCA, there are only two species of rats living in the UK â brown rats and black rats.
Brown rats, which are greyish brown and can grow to around 27cm (10in), are by far the most common.
Getting an accurate picture of exactly how many of them there are is difficult â previous estimates have ranged from 1.5 million to 120 million.
Last year, Cardiff council said its pest control service carried out 3,166 call-outs to reports of the rodents â a 10% increase since 2023 and a 15% increase since 2022.
The rise is not unique to Cardiff â of the 14 councils that provide a pest control service in Wales, all but Bridgend and Merthyr reported an increase in rat call-outs in 2023.
Freedom of Information request data published by Direct Line last year found that councils across the UK carried out 271,343 residential visits for rodent infestations in 2023 â an 18% increase on 2022.

Niall Gallagher from the British Pest Control Association said councils faced âsome real challengesâ.
âUltimately, we do have less frequent waste collections that then allows us to have a greater risk of road infestations in those areas,â Mr Gallagher added.
He said while professional pest control services were the best way to deal with infestations, prevention was better.
âItâs definitely a community and a public health issue,â he said.
âCleaning up, proofing or housekeeping. These are the top three things that weâd always recommend to everyone.â
âYou may be feeding ratsâ
A Cardiff council spokesperson said rats were âadaptable, highly mobile and breed rapidlyâ.
âThis combination makes it a difficult task to eradicate rats without suitable training,â the spokesperson said.
They advised city residents to ensure their properties were free from holes, vents were not damaged or missing and drainage systems were in good working order.
âRemove potential nesting sites by keeping yards and gardens clean and tidy, and cut back overgrown areas,â they added.
âBe aware that by feeding wild birds or other animals â you may be feeding rats as well.â

They also advised that all food waste should be put into a food waste caddy and recyclable materials should be rinsed to help stop them being attacked by birds, animals or other vermin.
âCardiff council does treat sewers in areas where there has been an increase in rodent sightings and we do have a paid for service which helps eradicate rats from residentsâ homes,â they added.
A Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) spokesperson said food waste was collected weekly âin nearly all areasâ of Wales.
âProblems tend to arise when bins are not used correctlyâfor example, when food waste is placed in black bags, which can be torn open by rats or seagulls,â they added.