A FAMILY has been left terrified after a gargantuan 20-inch long rat was discovered lurking in their garden.
The monster rodent was found dead in a garden in Minster, on the isle of Sheppey.
Cover ImagesPhil Golding and his son Ollie are in the rat catching business together[/caption]
Cover ImagesThe 20-inch rat was discovered when the homeowners did some gardening[/caption]
It was uncovered on Monday, August 1, while the horrified homeowners were gardening.
Ethan Squire, a Bristol University music student said his dad discovered the giant rat while doing work outside.
Ethan, 18, said: “We have never had rats before, so I have no idea where this one has come from.
“It must have been at least 32 centimetres without the tail and with it, about 52 centimetres [20 inches].”
Feeling amazed and disgusted by the beast Ethan snapped a picture of its body resting on a shovel, he said: “The way the rat is halfway off the shovel does not do it justice.”
It comes after a similar 22-inch supersized rodent, thought to be the largest captured in the UK, was found in Yorkshire last month.
The two finds dwarf the average UK brown rat, which only grows between 15 and 27 centimetres or between six and 10.5 inches.
Despite the discovery of the mega pests experts have said that rats aren’t growing larger.
Kent-based pest control expert and Pestaway Ltd boss, Phil Golding, says he isn’t seeing larger animals on his call-outs.
The 57-year-old dad of three has been a self-employed exterminator for more than two decades and now, working alongside his son, Ollie.
He said: “I have not seen one bigger than the 16-incher that latched onto my foot in 2016.
“It stunk and had flies all over it, so I had thought it was dead. But when I tried to approach, the monster bit me.
“Luckily, I had steel-toe caps on and was able to hit it with a metal bar.
“But genetically, rats are not supposed to grow that big, and I am not seeing abnormally large rats myself.
“We aren’t in the rodent season yet, but in 2024, we had more calls than in 2023. That year, we had also seen an upsurge in 2022.”
Phil reckons the upsurge in rodent sightings is caused by food waste bins, which he says attract the terrifying critters.
Another pest control boss, Matthew O’Donnell, 33, has run Kent Country pest Control for six years.
He said people may be spotting more of the scurrying rodents because their habitats are being built on.
Matthew also doesn’t believe that rats are growing in size, he said: “Rats vary in size already depending on circumstances, and from my experience, they aren’t getting larger.
“But one change I have seen, where I live in Tonbridge, is that when housing developments are built, it pushes rats closer towards people’s homes.
“I think that is happening across the country, so people are seeing rats more frequently.
“People are also feeding wildlife, like birds, in their gardens more frequently and that encourages them as well.”
British Pest Control Association (BPCA) technical manager Niall Gallagher said he would need to see hard evidence of an explosion in rat size before making any claims.
Niall, 34, said: “If we are going to be making claims around the rats being big, I want to see the tape measure.
“It’s always been, ‘oh it was the size of a cat’ and my argument is, how big is the cat?”
Thought the pesky rodents may not be growing larger they are becoming a more common sighting.
A terrifying piece of data shows councils are inundated with please to get rid of monster rats.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Direct Line home insurance found local authorities across the country responded to 52 more rat or mouse-related call-outs per day last year compared with 2022.
Meanwhile, council control services were called out to more than 290,000 homes across the UK last year, up 3% on the year before and an increase of 9% on 2022.
Mr Gallagher said members of the BPCA are also being called out to more rodent problems.
He said: “We are finding more and more of our typical [rodent] seasons are becoming blended.
“Usually, you would find rodent season would be over your colder months, where natural food sources tend to die down and they’ll move closer to homes.
“But we are finding now that actually we have people dealing with rats all year round.”
Help! I have mice or rats in my garden…
WHETHER you can hear them they’re scurrying around your house, or underneath your decking, there’s one reason you have mice…
Fabulous’ Associate Editor, Rebecca Miller, is a gardening enthusiast. She explains why it’s not uncommon to have mice, but you should be concerned if you have rats.
“Our gardens are homes to various animals, from birds to hedgehogs to squirrels. But there’s one animal no one wants to find – mice or rats.
“Mice can be destructive, and rats are just downright scary, and send everyone into a panic.
“But mice are common all across the UK – and one or two in the garden is not cause for alarm.
“Wood mice and field mice will easily get in your home since they are small enough to squeeze in almost anywhere. However, they are more likely to shelter in garages, sheds, and outhouses because they provide easier access to the outside world.
“You’re also more likely to see mice inside during the autumn and winter months.
“As for rats, they are generally considered vermin and can spread potentially serious diseases. They tend to set up home beneath decking, in sheds or greenhouses, and compost heaps.
“Rats are mostly nocturnal so you may not see them when you’re in your garden, but there are some signs to look out for: tunnels or ‘runs’, droppings, gnawed wood, or teeth marks in crops.”
Cover ImagesMatthew O’Donnell is also in the pest control game, he said rats aren’t getting bigger but they are getting more common[/caption]
Cover ImagesBritish Pest Control Association (BPCA) technical manager Niall Gallagher wants to see hard evidence of rat growth before he believes claims that the rodents are getting bigger[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
