Kieran Sampler, who runs Vermicure pest control and says that the numbers of calls about rats this summer has gone through the roof.

Transcript

00:00 Hi, my name's Kieran, I'm the Managing Director of VermiCare Pest Control.

00:04 We specialise in using dogs and obviously trapping methods.

00:08 We try to minimise the use of any rodenticides and poisons,

00:12 i.e. going in properties and stuff because the backlash is just horrendous.

00:17 We do quite a lot with terrier work, whether it's on farms, small holdings,

00:22 even business areas and even gardens,

00:26 the majority in Leeds are quite bad for rats.

00:30 And what do you think has caused the increase in rats?

00:34 This year alone, and obviously Covid, we blame it a lot down to rubbish,

00:39 a lot of rubbish and obviously even students and stuff like that,

00:42 but you don't want to just blame students, there's quite a lot of food waste,

00:46 a lot of land site, even there's a lot of breaks in drainage

00:50 and obviously I know Yorkshire Water are having a big backlash of stuff like that.

00:55 But yeah, mainly a lot to do with rubbish and stuff like that,

00:58 disregarding a lot of food waste, which obviously is not the best.