Warning as mild winter and hot summer have created ideal breeding conditions for rats
It's because of climate change
Rats that typically only start to appear in Ireland in September and October are now widespread all year round - and it's all down to climate change.
In the past few years, our unusually mild winters and hot summers have created ideal conditions for the rodents.
Richard Faulkner, Advanced Technical Field Supervisor at Rentokil, told RSVP Live: "I've been working in pest control almost 22 years and when I started it was very seasonal.
"Going into the end of September, beginning of October, rodents picked up and then died down around March.
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"That doesn't seem to happen any more - there's a lot of activity now."
Richard said it's all down to the availability of food.
"With the mild winters and good summers we've been having, they're getting a lot of fruit and seeds.
"The more food, the higher the capacity for pest population."
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Has he noticed any increase in the size of rats?
"You hear about these 'super rats' that have been caught, but when you look closely at the photos it's all about the way they were taken.
"I grew up fishing so I know - if you want to make something look bigger, hold it towards the camera. There's quite a lot of that going on.
"There are bigger species of rat but we don't have them in Ireland.
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"In Tipperary there was a giant rat spotted swimming down a river but that must have been introduced or was a pet that escaped."
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