There are THREE rats under your house right now…plus 10 other horrific facts about the rodents
WHETHER you like it or not, a rat is probably VERY close to you right now.
Whatever your view on them, the often vilified vermin can actually be pretty scary.
Here are 11 shocking facts about rats in the UK.
1) You’re never far from one...
There are many theories about how far away we are from a rat at any given time.
Statistics claim that in Britain you are never more than 20 feet away from a rat and there's likely to be at least three underneath your house at all
times.
Even if these stats aren't completely accurate, it is true that we are never far away from a rat - especially in urban areas.
2) Rats like to eat meat
Rats are omnivores and they eat both plants and animals.
These days, rats seem to prefer protein-rich food such as meat.
A rat's diet can include anything from nuts and seeds to insects, worms, eggs, dead animals and sometimes even frogs, fish, reptiles and birds - as well as anything else they catch and kill.
3) You can’t keep them out
No matter how sealed up you think your home is, chances are a rat will always find its way in if it wants to.
One study even found that small rats think nothing of lifting barriers that might block their way to explore a new area.
They also travel easily through pipes and are fantastic swimmers (forget the drowned rat analogy).
Horrifyingly, rats are quite capable of getting into your house via your loo.
Yikes.
Speaking of toilets, a rat can survive being flushed down one too.
4) They multiply super fast
If you have one rat, it's likely you’re on the road to having many.
Rats are not slackers when it comes to multiplying and two rats alone can have up to 6,000 babies before they die aged two or three.
When these babies start multiplying (at as early as at three months old), you’ve got a lot of rats on your hands.
5) They’re everywhere
There are now thought to be over 80 million rats in Britain and there’s likely to be an even bigger influx of them over winter.
This pretty much backs up the notion that we’re never far from one...
6) They’re getting harder to kill
Pest control, when it comes to rats, can be seriously tough. Even poisoning them can prove difficult.
Rats only eat a small amount of any new food source at first to try and avoid becoming ill.
Mix this clever tactic with the fact that scientists now claim there are “genetically mutated super rats” on the loose (that are immune to almost
every type of poison) and it all sounds very worrying.
7) Rat teeth don't stop growing
Rat teeth are not the most attractive of gnashers and a rat bite can be a serious problem.
Talking of teeth, theirs are strong enough to nibble through wood, brick, concrete, metal and even BONE.
8) They LOVE blood...and biting your face
This isn’t the most comforting of facts, but rats are basically a bunch of furry little vampires that love the taste of blood.
A 22-year study of urban rat bites found that the most common time to be bitten is between midnight and 8am, so the rodents will generally strike while you’re peacefully sleeping in bed and then have a chew on your face.
Rats are most likely to chow down on our faces or our hands because they're the most exposed areas on our bodies.
Eeek.
9) Once they’ve had one bite they’ll probably take more...
Rats aren’t the 'take one bite and leave it' type.
Once they’ve got a taste for your blood, they’re likely to make a bit of a feast out of the whole situation.
An example of how horrific this can be is Pamela Hudson, who we recently revealed had been bitten over 50 times by rats before she died.
10) Rats around 2ft in length (head to tail) have been spotted in the UK
Gigantic rats have been spotted around the UK and this is mostly down to the food they’re able to get their teeth into these days.
Rats are now spoiled for choice when it comes to grub - from the remains of a take-away to the Sunday roast leftovers.
According experts, the rodents have now become so used to munching protein-heavy fast foods that they refuse to eat the carbohydrates and cereal traditionally used as bait or poison – meaning they’re not just big, they’re clever too.
11) Rats will eat ANYTHING and often resort to cannibalism
In the unlikely event a rat can’t find some discarded food to munch on, they’re not averse to a bit of cannibalism.
Rat mothers are known to eat their young.
Scientists think rat mums feed on their weaker young to save energy they'd otherwise have to spend caring for the runts of the litter.
As we told you previously, a plague of rats is invading homes through letterboxes and TOILETS.
And what are ‘super’ rats and how do you get rid of them?