I lived in London for four years (2017 -2021) and saw fewer rats than I have after living in Reading for 2 weeks. Why is this? I would have thought London would have loads of rats?
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Edit: I saw a tonne of mice (which I don’t mind and kinda even find cute) about the same size as a couple of my fingers, but Reading seems to have a load of rats as big as my forearm.
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Maybe London just has more spaces for them to hide.
The guy in charge of these things is very effective – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Mouser_to_the_Cabinet_Office
The rats found the cost of living in london too much so decided to move out to Reading.
The tube
Might be changing. I lived in London for seven years and never saw a rat. Visited a few weeks ago and saw two.
There are more tunnels, the tube is warm, there are underground rivers and literal rat runs. There are tons of them. I lived at the end of a tube line and got one in the house and it bit through our power supply. Grim doesn’t cover it.
Plenty of small food carts
They prefer Paris
It has way more rats, they just have so many more places to hide especially underground. If you pay attention at many tune stations especially once’s with daylight Hammersmith, Earls Court) and look the tracks you’ll often see plenty of them.
Go to the Park/river in Mile End by Queen Mary university. All the rats are there
That’s because all the rats are in Westminster
The snakes got rid of all the rats.
I worked fitting ac in Euston railway, rail gourmet. I can guarantee you the tunnels under the station, knicknamed ‘ the rat run’ do indeed have many rodents in them. On one occasion two work colleagues had to chase a swarm down the tunnels, using a lump hammer and a blow lamp
It’s all those trendy ‘Street Food’ vendors. Where else else do you think they get the meat from?
The cost of living crisis has driven up the demand for rats and roadkill as a source of protein
One of them just took the throne and other one is notorious for not sweating. Rats all over London.
Oh there are loads here, you just don’t see them. Whatever you do, don’t google “rat king”.
If you go to a tube station and pay close attention to the tracks, and you’ll see them. They happen to be the same grey colour, so you have up look out for them, but they’re there.
Learned their lesson after the Plague.
They all drive those Foxtons mini’s! (do they still have those in London? loooooong time since I was that way)
More places to hide more historic sewer systems combined with more trash on offer by overpopulation and a out of date infrastructure hospitality and tourism.
I saw a scrawny mouse in tube station 2weeks ago. It hid behind a door when anyone walked past and then popped his head out when it got a bit quieter.
The morlocks keep the numbers down
I believe London STILL employs official rat catchers, as well as other pest control officers, unlike most other cities who have gotten rid of their departments years ago (budget cuts). They instead hire contractors from private companies when things get too bad.
How do you manage to live in London and not ever see a rat? The park by me has them running around in large numbers in the middle of day, and we have a lot in the garden. I’ve cleaned up dozens of rats that my cats have killed over the three years living in my current place.
There are loads. You were just lucky to miss them.
Geezz. People can’t stop talking down London can they? So much crime, not enough rats.
The rats come out when it’s quiet. I will never forget being the only person in Leicester Square station during the Covid lockdowns and seeing rats everywhere dashing all over the picadilly line platforms.
While OP might find mice cute, they are actually far filthier than rats. This is because mice do not have a bladder, so they essentially leave a trail of urine everywhere they go. Meanwhile rats actually do demonstrate a degree of personal hygiene. Still wouldn’t want either in my house though.
might be wrong as I’m just an ignorant Yank, but didn’t some Dick Whittington fellow get his cat after them?
London has a massive network of tunnels under it. If you are on the underground at night you will see them . The scenes from 28 days later are entirely plausible
They’re all working in Foxtons
Foxes eat them. I don’t know why more in Reading, but I’ve heard that’s why fewer than in New York.
They get the same wage in either location. Why live in a little 60sqm apartment when they can get a detached 5 bedroom house called The Cedars elsewhere!
That’s Charlie work, goes round bashing em good