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Scottish storms have caused huge vermin problem
23/01/2012
Storms that battered the west coast of Scotland have caused an enormous infestation of vermin in the town of Oban.
The popular seaside town has seen sales of mousetraps and rat poison soar in the last few weeks, after the storms swept away many of the animals natural seaside habitats, sending them scurrying for cover wherever they could find it.
Jaz MacIntyre, a sales assistant at Oban’s Mica Hardware, said, “People are coming in the shop for bait and traps and they are saying that they have never seen so many mice.
“It is an explosion – as soon as they kill one mouse another two replace them. What we really need a Pied Piper.”
He said that he had heard the vermin had become a major problem throughout the whole of the Argyll and Bute region, and that stocks of pest control apparatus were flying off their shelves as soon as they were brought out.
Tom Bell, chief executive of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland said, “If there is heavy rain at any time, any living creature will seek shelter and habitats have probably been destroyed in the storms.
“That certainly could account for the mice moving into homes, barns, or other places where it is dry. There can be an increase in sightings because they have been flushed out of their usual hidey holes.”
