A PLAGUE of rats is swarming across a stretch of Flamborough, running along garden walls, devouring food on bird tables and littering grass verges with ratholes.
Residents have complained to the council, who confirmed it had sent pest controllers to the area around North Marine Road to lay bait traps along any affected council owned land.
Flamborough Parish councillor Steve Crowther said he had never seen anything like it in his life.
"It’s disgusting, they are just all over the place, absolutely everywhere," he said. "You just have to drive down the road and you see them in the fields.
"You can park up and wait then they’ll come out, dashing across the road.
"The council called it a mass infestation and a friend of mine saw a carpet of them along the road at one time. There’s just hundreds of them."
Steve believes it is piles of corn left unharvested at the edges of the fields along North Marine Road which have led to the invasion, and this is a view shared by other local residents.
One, who did not wish to be named, said: "That corn should not be left. I don’t care what they say about leaving verges untouched for wildlife, there’s no need to leave that much.
"And you can put down as much poison as you like, but it won’t help.
"I keep sheep and lambs and the rats urinate in their food, so they just won’t eat it now," he added.
Mick Atkinson, a Marine Valley resident, is currently working outdoors on a property in Thornwick Road and said he often sees the rats running through nearby gardens.
"I’m out here working all day so I see them all the time," he said.
"I’ve sat in my van once and watched as eight appeared one after the other.
"There’s dead ones all along the verge too.
"They haven’t made it down to the Valley yet and I hope they don’t because there’s wooden homes down there. That could be real trouble."
Julie Sanders of Thornwick Road said one of her neighbours is so terrified of the rats she has recently had trouble sleeping, and another is too scared to go into her garage for fear of seeing one.
"It’s like the Pied Piper tale up here!" said Julie, "I’ve been sat talking on the phone before, watching out of my window as they’ve run along my garden wall.
"We’ve been asked by the council not to put food out for the birds because the rats eat it, but I used to watch them running across my neighbour’s garden, taking food from his bird table all the time.
"They act like gangs. They really do swarm," said Julie.
"Living out in the fields, you do expect to see one or two, but nothing like the amount we’re having now," she added, saying she was pleased with the council’s response to the invasion.
Council pest control officers have already made frequent visits to the area and have asked private landowners to lay down traps on their land.
Letters have been sent to residents in the locality informing them of the situation, and a spokesman said officers would continue to visit the area until the infestation problem was resolved.
The full article contains 547 words and appears in Bridlington Free Press newspaper.
