07-08-2025
The town infested with supersized rats which feast on uncollected rubbish and fatten up to 22 inches... and not even locals' toilets are safe!
Residents of a northern town that cut bin collections a year ago are suffering a plague of cat-sized rats stuffing themselves silly on rubbish, growing to almost two feet long.
Rat catcher Jaime Lawrence, of Exopest Ltd, reckons residents in Middlesbrough and the neighbouring Redcar and Cleveland council area of North Yorkshire are suffering thanks to historical council cutbacks.
Packs of up to 60 rodents have infested some properties, he told the Daily Mail, with some found swimming in toilet bowls.
A rat in a neighbouring area was found measuring 22 inches last week - and locals are finding decomposing rodent bodies in their estates.
The Labour-run council suspended its domestic pest control service in 2018 as it ran short of cash, and last year cut bin collections from weekly to fortnightly while seeking to avoid effectively declaring bankruptcy.
Mr Lawrence told the Mail he has seen 'bold' rodents running around in broad daylight, with residents' lazy littering habits only encouraging the problem.
He spoke out after a 22-inch (55cm) rat was found in Normanby, in Redcar and Cleveland last week. The council does not offer pest control services to residents.
The woman whose home was invaded by the two-foot monster rodent exclusively spoke to the Mail, claiming the problem was thriving due to council inaction.
Julie, 60, who declined to give her surname, said she still has rats in the attic despite trying to keep her home spotless.
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She said of the hulking vermin: 'It was in this house. It was caught by pest control and that is where the photograph came from. But we have had continuous problems and it is not because I have a dirty house.
'So the assumption we are living in squalid conditions is absolutely wrong. It was found, it was caught but it is an ongoing problem because the local authority are not doing anything. I am having to pay for pest control privately.'
Pest controller Mr Lawrence said he himself has caught a 21-inch rat in Carlin How, around 10 miles west of Middlesbrough itself. A typical adult cat can be around 18 inches long.
How do you keep rats out of homes and gardens?
After a 22-inch rat was discovered in a home just outside Middlesbrough, pest control experts have advised how to keep the critters at bay.
John Stewart, a technical training manager at pest control goods firm Pest-Stop, said rodents can crawl into a gap the width of a ballpoint pen - so any and all holes should be plugged.
'Rats are opportunistic and thrive in places where they can easily find food, moisture and shelter - conditions that many homes and gardens unintentionally provide, he said.
'It only takes a gap the width of a biro - just over 12mm - for a rat to squeeze through.'
Mr Stewart recommends using traps, or ultrasonic repellent plugs for those seeking a more humane option.
Among the most problematic hotspots for rats are:
Airbricks and weepholes: Cracked and missing covers for vital wall gaps can allow rats in
Garages: Improperly sealed garage doors can be wriggled under, and should be secured with seals or bristle strips
Compost bins: Warm, dry and full of food waste, these should be properly sealed and placed on hard surfaces to deter burrowing
Bird feeders: Bird feed should be stored in a sealed, metal, rodent-proof container
Water sources: Dripping taps and bird baths can inadvertently support rodents. Remove standing water regularly
Overgrown areas: Long grass, stacked wood, climbing ivy and unused furniture can be a safe haven for rodents and should be kept tidy
But the rat catching expert said the former pig iron production capital of Britain was the worst when it came to infestations at large.
He said: 'If you go into Middlesbrough town centre and go down any alley you will see them running all over the place.
'It is worse in Middlesbrough than other areas we have experience. I am not sure why. It is probably council cutbacks (to blame).
'Also people are messy and do not look after themselves. You go down the alleys in Middlesbrough and there is rubbish everywhere.
'People chuck food and rubbish bags all over rather than putting them in the bins.
'I live in Guisborough and we have same recycling - but we do not have rats running about everywhere.'
Middlesbrough, like many cash-strapped councils, no longer offers private pest control services, suspending them for private residents in 2018.
And last August, it cut bin collections from weekly to fortnightly - controversially buying up £1.2million of new larger bins before the decision to cut services was authorised by councillors.
It announced its first new investment in street cleaning in more than 10 years as part of its most recent budget.
And that came after one of the city's most rubbish-ridden alleyways was finally cleaned up - with nine tonnes of waste removed following resident complaints.
Mr Lawrence believes these budgetary cutbacks - which came before the council narrowly avoided having to make a section 114 'bankruptcy' order in 2024 - have contributed to the town's growing rodent problem.
He continued: 'It's more cutbacks on the pest control side. The rats are very bold. They are out in broad daylight all the time in Middlesbrough.
'You can see them all times of days. You see them in public areas and they have got into properties as well.
'We deal with houses like that all the time. They usually call us out when they are in the house. It depends how bad the infestation is.
'Some houses there could be 50 or 60 running about. They carry a lot of diseases and it has been known for them to attack when they are cornered or feel threatened. That's why people are scared.'
The most common rat species in Britain is Rattus norvegicus, better known as the brown rat. Rattus rattus, the black rat - also known as a ship's rat - is occasionally spotted in the UK, but Mr Lawrence says these are rarer.
He added that both rats are capable of climbing - and that he had seen brown rats climbing brick walls in order to reach building cavities.
Some rats are so keen to access warm, dry buildings and rubbish that they had gnawed through garage doors and bin lids, he added.
Mr Lawrence said the rats could run in groups of up to 50 or 60 - and had found one 21 inches in length, about the same size as a small adult cat
On one occasion, he even found one in a toilet - having either swum up through a drain or leapt into the loo seeking escape.
'We have seen them arching their backs and climbing drainpipes. They're coming from all over the place,' he continued.
'Drains are a big issue, One of the first thing we do with rat infested properties is check the drains for damage and pipe damage.
'I came across one young rat in a toilet bowl. We could not tell if it had swum up there or was trying to swim down and got stuck.
'Most foul water pipes are four inches wide. Anything can fit through there. When we do drain surveys we (often) don't find a seal.
'We can slide a camera straight up the pipes and nine times out of ten you can feed it all the way to the toilet bowl.'
On the doorsteps of Middlesbrough and the wider area, concern over the invasion is high. Residents are baiting traps with peanut butter and Mars bars in order to tempt the critters to their doom - and are finding decomposing bodies in the gardens of their estates.
Residents have blamed lack of pest control and grass cutting for making the city a breeding ground.
A neighbour of the Normanby woman who found the 22-inch beast said: 'It is astonishing. These are new terraced houses, only 15 years old, but it is (connected to) the old sewage system.
'The rats gnawed through her pipe. She has had two floods in her kitchen coming through the ceiling. The rats have also damaged the boiler and electrics and eaten through the concrete in the new yard to get into the premises.
'She knew she had a rat or mice problem. The boiler stopped working and when the engineer unscrewed the front a loaf of white bread fell out.
'The rats had brought the loaf in form somewhere and were nesting on the boiler because it was warm. She heard them again in her loft yesterday morning. So it is not great.'
Councillor Paul McInnes, a Conservative on Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, found a rat while he was fitting a new kitchen in his shop.
He said: 'I thought it was a mouse at first but it was a baby rat. It was just there. I caught it in a trap and had to disinfect everywhere.
'It is perfect habitat for them here in this area with all the back alleys and becks (small streams) running down. But the council could do a lot better.
'There is no pest control. They have one guy who does the entire borough. The binmen do not help. They don't pick up the rubbish that falls out the bin.'
The council - which still collects weekly from communal bins - has sprung into action, filling in holes created by rats near drain covers. But locals say cuts to grass cutting have provided a perfect environment for critters to hide and thrive.
Alleyways throughout the area were filled with rubbish and overflowing bins when the Mail visited on Tuesday.
Local business owner Jan Pybus, 59, was stunned to find her spotless Village Pantry sandwich shop invaded by rats after chewing their way into her premises at night.
She has installed rubber seals around her pipes to stop rodents getting in. Neighbours are using steel wool.
Jan, who has run the shop seven years, said: 'We have had them in the bins. They have got in my shop by chewing through the skirting boards.
'They leap out the bins, down the drains and into the shops. Everyone tries to keep the area tidy but it is getting worse. It is terrible. They are in the grass and everything. They get everywhere.
'But the problem is getting worse because the grass is not being cut properly. We need a designated bin area to store the rubbish away form the shops but the council say they haven't got any money.'
Mr Taylor told the Mail this week that funding to deal with pests had been cut during Covid
Moorcock Close, on the edge of Middlesbrough, is littered with dead rats. Local youths have taken to doodling cartoon rats on paving stones next to the charitable slogan: 'F*** off.'
A graffiti artist had even drawn Raticate, a rat-like character from the Pokémon series of video games, on a covered-up opening of a local building.
Resident Keith Smith points out a hole leading to the foundations of a house where the rats are believed to be nesting. He said: 'They are huge. They are massive.'
Barmaid Michelle Harper, 36, has called the area home since she was a child. She said: 'It is disgusting. I have seen the rodents walking on fences, running around the back gardens, and dying outside my door.
'They don't care and they are massive - like cats. I cannot put poison down in my garden because I have got a dog. The streets stink of rats' pee. The kids cannot play out because of them.
'I had to get rid of the bushes in my garden because the rats were hiding in them. You see them climbing up the house walls. It is awful. I can't remember the last time the council cut the grass around here.'
Walking her dog Clover around the Moorcock Close estate, Kelsey Leigh Harper said: 'We have loads of see them scurrying all around here. One scurried over my feet one night and I screamed the place down.
'One of our neighbour's back gardens used to be covered in rats. Around here is atrocious for rats and they are the size of Clover - the size of dogs or big cats.
'It is disgusting. My friend found a rat under the cupboards under the sink. It is like they are taking over the world.'
Kelsey's grandmother Mandy Harper, 63, said: 'I have four rat traps in my garden now. I have to disarm them every time I let the dog out. I am sick of buying them.
'I will not go in my back garden because of the rats. A lot of them have been coming from a house that has been empty for four years. The problem is they (the council) are not cutting the grass like they used to.
'I am petrified. I hate Tuesdays, which is bin day - because you see them jumping off the bins.'
Her daughter Julie Harper, 45, has caught half a dozen rats in traps in the last two years - realising they were inside when half a load of bread was eaten overnight.
She said: 'I could not sleep until they caught them all. Even now I close my back door every tea time because I know the rats will be in the garden.
'One ran past my feet while I was walking and into the drain. I think it got worse when they started doing bin collections fortnightly rather than weekly due to recycling.'
Another problem is that the dead rats are being eaten by people's pet dogs, causing infection.
Julie Harper's sister Courtney Harper was horrified to find her dog's hair falling out after nibbling on a rogue rodent. 'It had to put him on antibiotics. It is horrible,' she added.
Middlesbrough Council has been contacted for comment.
The discovery of a 22-inch rat close to Middlesbrough has caught the eye of the national media - unsurprising, given that it may be the biggest domestic rat ever found in Britain.
David Taylor and Stephen Martin, a pair of Conservative councillors in the Redcar and Cleveland area, shared the image after it was caught in Normanby.
It's also a stone's throw from Eston, described by pest controller Mr Lawrence as being 'really bad for rats'.
They say the area's bins are 'overflowing' with rubbish, with local residents claiming the authority does 'nothing' when notified of the issue, or of rubbish left in the streets.
'I had to do a double take when I saw a picture of it,' Mr Martin said.
'You can tell by the size of the bag that it's not a normal size. It's the size of a cat.
'Rats are being spotted more and more around our area. It has been getting worse for a few years now.'
Going beyond the cuts imposed in Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland no longer offers pest control services to any residents - instead employing a full-time 'pest control officer' to offer advice by telephone.
'The responsibility for taking action to solve a pest problem belongs to the occupant of the property,' it says on its website.
Mr Martin added that people often cannot afford private pest controllers. The problem was being exacerbated, he said, by the council's expanded recycling scheme.
'Contaminated' bins containing the wrong material - such as paper bins with plastic - were not being collected, only adding to the issue. He and Mr Taylor have called for a borough-wide vermin survey and treatment plan.
'There's more rubbish on the ground and it is attracting more rats and they are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger,' Mr Martin warned.
Mr Taylor added to the Mail: 'The council need to act. It has been a growing problem for many years especially since they pulled the funding during Covid.
'We cannot rid of the rats. But we need a big cull throughout the borough. It is not just the amount of rats but the sheer size of them.
'The social media post showed one the size of a small cat, measuring 22 inches. But regardless of their size they are a health hazard.
'If the problem is left untreated it is going to get worse and worse. Something needs to happen now.
'We are seeing more of them because they are less food going down the sewers so they are coming out to get at the bins.
'Next year residents are getting food waste bins. Super rats or little rats we just need a big cull because it is an invasion.'
Redcar and Cleveland said: 'The council has a dedicated pest control officer who manages pest issues on council-owned land. While we no longer provide a wider pest control service, we do offer advice to residents where possible.
'The council continues to work with Beyond Housing, Northumbrian Water and other partners to address complex issues and explore potential solutions.
'There is also helpful guidance and preventative measures on our website to support people in dealing with pests.'
It is thought that nationwide cuts to bin collections have contributed to Britain's rat problem - while strikes in Birmingham that have lasted for months have seen the city's already burgeoning rodent population explode.
And in 2023, Glasgow was faced with a rat crisis after rodents the size of small dogs turned one city street into a no-go zone for refuse workers.
The GMB union said it was pulling workers away from Earl Street after deeming it not safe for collections, after workers were bitten and scratched.
The Wildlife Trust says a typical female brown rat has an average of five litters a year, bearing up to a dozen young at a time.
