Primary school forced to call in pest control as rats invade premises
17 January 2020, 14:12
One school in Sunderland has taken drastic steps to get rid of rats in the school's car park.
Seaham Trinity Primary School have been forced to call in pest control experts after regular sighting of rats around the car park.
The rodents have been spotted "running quite freely" around the school's premises.
It has been reported the rats have been coming from an underground pipe, just off the school's site.
They are believed to have been feeding on bins in the area over the Christmas holidays when the school was empty.
The school said that the pest control team did a survey of the building and found the rodent issue was contained.
The school have kept parents of students updated, writing on their Facebook page: “As you will be aware over the Christmas break there have been a number of rats seen running around the school car park.
“We have been in contact with pest control who came out on Saturday (January 4) and baited the area in which the rats had been seen.
“Pest control have been out again today (Monday, January 6) and saw that all the bait had been taken.
“He laid more bait down today and will continue to come out to check the progress. During their visit they did not see one rat, whereas on Saturday they were running quite freely.”
Mark Farren, Durham County Council’s pest control manager, also confirmed the news, saying: "We were made aware on Friday (January 3) of rats on the grounds of Seaham Trinity Primary School and made contact with staff at the site who confirmed they were handling the matter.
“We were asked to attend to assist on Saturday (January 4), following which we began a treatment programme in the grounds and provided advice.
“Our team also inspected the school building and found no evidence of rats having gained access.
“We have visited the school again yesterday and today (Monday, January 7 and Tuesday, January 8) and found the treatment has started to work and should resolve the issue quickly.”
Towards the end of last year, the UK was warned that a stampede of 120 million rodents was expected to descend as the weather got colder and wetter.
It was estimated at the time that there were around double the amount of rats in the UK than humans - with about 66 million of us living in Britain today.
