New enemy earns Yorkshire village unwelcome title: Ratville

Martin Wainwright
The Guardian, Thursday 12 March 2009

Cycle clips, wellies and big sticks have become the temporary fashion in a picturesque village on the Yorkshire coast where gardens, roads and hedges have been invaded by hundreds of rats.

The unusually bold animals are the new enemy on Flamborough Head, scene of an epic naval battle with the Americans during the war of independence in 1779. Rat runs criss-cross fields of spring corn on North Marine Road between Flamborough village and the North Sea, where drivers have been brought to a halt by up to 200 of the rodents crossing the road.

"We've been overrun with them - it's been horrendous for residents," said Councillor Steve Crowther of Flamborough parish council. "There were just a few to start with but now there seem to be thousands."

Bird feeders have disappeared from gardens after a warning letter from the East Riding of Yorkshire council, asking everyone in the area not to feed wild animals. Retired hotelier John Gee said: "It's a shame because we've got some wonderful birdlife round here. But while there's a danger of encouraging the rats everyone's happy to do what the pest control says."

Pest control officer Ron Keight and his team are focusing on fields left waterlogged by winter rain and snow, which has stopped farmers ploughing. The short stalks of corn are a rat's ideal food supply, and breeding in hedgerow nests is thought to have doubled or tripled.

"It's been very scary," said Cindy Kolter, a resident in the worst affected area, where yesterday several poisoned rats limped away from the stubble and under a hedge. "I had six in the garden at once and two of them came right up to the door. To be honest with you, I didn't dare go out."

More than 30 bait boxes have been laid, and are checked daily for carcasses. A local joiner said: "I'd five of them on the first day in the trap they put out at my place, but it seems to be getting better now."

Other residents have sealed cat flaps after reports of rats trying to use them to get into houses. The problem has become so bad that other local villages, always keen to get one-up on neighbours, have nicknamed Flamborough "Ratville".

Three doors from Kolter, Julie Sanders said: "It's like the Pied Piper tale up here. I've been sat talking on the phone, watching out of my window as they've run along my garden wall ... they act like gangs. They really do swarm."

Crowther, who runs a DIY store, said that there were serious worries about the outbreak affecting tourism, which is important on the dramatic stretch of coast north of Bridlington.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/12/rats-yorkshire