Cat-sized rats on Welsh coast and how to safely deter rats from your garden

Very large rats have been spotted near Castle Beach in Tenby in Wales with Pembrokeshire Council advising locals not to drop food or feed birds. The enormous rodents are thought to be eroding the cliffs where they are nesting.

Speaking to the BBC, local boatman Roger Miles said: “Early evenings, dusk, early morning, rats all over the place, really. There’s a certain area where you see parts of the cliff have been eroded.”

“Rats as big as cats sometimes, they’re really big rats.”

He begged the council to act as quickly as possible to resolve the issue once and for all.

Another resident, Derek Brown spoke of the structural damage to the cliffs that the rodents have done.

The rodents have even made their way into people’s homes like Poet Clive Dobbins who was startled when he discovered a large rat in his living room.

He said: “Suddenly, this thing dashed and hit my leg. Quite a few people have told me, especially on this mountain here, they’ve seen clusters of them.”

According to the World Health Organisation, rats are already responsible for causing more than 400 million infections in people annually and the problems only seem to keep growing.

Here’s how to deal with the problem without hurting other animals:

1. Remove food sources (secure your compost, squirrel-proof bird feeders)
2. Block off any forms of shelter (cut back vegetation, remove debris)
3. Use essential oils and hot peppers to deter them (peppermint, citronelle, eucalyptus)

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