A PEST controller has said that rats across the borough are ‘breeding well’ following a surge in callouts.

Andy Hetherington has been tackling pests for nearly 20 years and currently runs Pestrap, which works in Bolton, Bury, and other surrounding areas.

In recent weeks and months, Andy has noticed an increase in the amount of callouts for rat problems he deals with.

He said: “I have been coming across a lot of activity which is odd as they are usually out of the way at this time of year. I have been doing two or three a day at times.

“My theory is that a lot of people bought a lot of food that they couldn’t finish off throughout lockdown - there was a lot of panic buying so there was a lot of food getting thrown out.

“And then when lockdown ended, there was a lot of parties, so a lot of things would have been dumped and dropped, which would have attracted rats.”

Andy added that he had seen a number of ‘small rats’ in recent months, bolstering his belief that breeding had increased.

He added that he believed rats were becoming resistant to bait and poison - and the ones bought from places such as B&Q and online stores were too weak to make a difference.

Andy has tackled rats in all manner of places - from finding dead rats in dolls houses to ones who have jumped on women and others which have chewed through a car battery.

He said: “Pest controllers haven’t been going into places due to Covid, so they have been able to thrive in some places. People should have been able to have had their homes cleared though - you can’t be living with rats.”

Bolton Council has been contacted for comment on the apparent rat issue.

The council’s website states that their “fully qualified pest control staff provide a service for all domestic or business premises throughout the borough on request.”

UK pest control company Pest.co.uk reported the number of rats in infestations they were called to grew by 25 per cent through 2020 - with rats ‘breeding like crazy’.