'Rats the size of cats are invading our cities': Two-foot long giant rodents which are immune to poison are discovered feeding from bins in Britain

Pest controllers are seeing rats the 'size of small cats' cropping up in cities across the UK

A monster rat two feet long was caught and killed in Liverpool

Rodents up and down the country are becoming immune to poison



Pest controllers are calling on the EU to approve stronger poison to kill the rodents

It is the size of a small cat and enough to strike fear into anyone who sees it – but it could become a common sight in cities around the country.

A giant rat was caught in Liverpool and measured two feet long from its nose to its tail.



The menacing super rat was caug ht on an industrial estate by a pest controller from Whelan Services, one of the country's largest independent pest prevention companies.



Huge rats are being caught across Britain (file picture)

Whelan Services has offices in London, Liverpool and Hampshire and all locations report a rise in the number of super rats spotted.



Pest control experts today warned that similar rats are likely to become more common in the UK as more households get careless about how they throw out their rubbish, and discard left-over fast food.

They also warn that the rodents are becoming increasingly resistant to poison.



Experts say the conventional blood-thinning poison used to kill the rats is not working as it used to.



Now pest controllers are calling on the government to tighten up its response to the monster-size vermin and asking the EU to approve stronger ‘third generation poison’ to kill them.



Merseyside pest controller Sean Whelan from Whelan Services told Mail Online: ‘We’re seeing an upsurge in rat call-outs, it’s gone up significantly by about 15 per cent over the past year.

‘It’s been very good for us. But I’m not entirely sure what’s causing it, it could be the weather, it’s been very cold and it’s been very wet.



‘They’re twice as large as they once were. It’s definitely not uncommon to see rats the size of a cat.



Cities throughout the UK are seeing more super rats immune to poison as the rodents gorge on leftover food

‘The problem is that they’re feeding more than they used to. They’re feeding off leftover junk food that we throw away.



‘If there is vermin, 99.9 per cent of the time it’s our fault. We’re basically feeding them and they get used to it. So they keep coming around us to get more food,' he added.



Mr Whelan said: ‘The rats that we’re seeing in the city used to be the ones roaming round the countryside, in agriculture, out on farms, but they’ve migrated to towns – now they live in the city.



We found you: This huge rodent had to be removed by hand from the ceiling after the trap failed to work due to its size in Dublin

Mr Whelan said the 'monster rats' are in every town throughout the country but there has been an increase in sightings in Liverpool, Birmingham and London.



During the 1960s onwards, rat poison was based on the blood-thinning agent warfarin. It worked by draining the blood from the rat and killing it.



Today, pest controllers use bromadiolone, but both are proving to be ineffective on some monster vermin.

‘We find that the rats are becoming resistant to poison,' Mr whelan said. 'We used to use Warafin when I first started out 23 years ago. It was the first generation of rat poisoning and used to work but doesn't do much now.

'We need new, stronger poisons as they've grown used to what we use.'

The pest controller explained that in an area between Winchester and Salisbury the poisons simply do not work at all, while rats in London have also developed a higher immunity.



RAT KILLERS NEED STRONGER POISON TO COPE WITH RISE IN SUPER VERMIN

Rat poisons are controversial, due to secondary poisoning and risks to children, pets and wildlife.



Rodents are difficult to kill with poisons because their feeding habits reflect their place as scavengers. Rats will eat a small bit of something and wait, and if they don't get sick, they continue.



An effective rodenticide must be tasteless and odorless in lethal concentrations, and have a delayed effect.



There have been two generations of poisons given to rats.

The first generation include: warfarin and coumatetralyl



The second generation are: difenacoum, brodifacoum, flocoumafen and bromadiolone.



But rats are growing increasingly resistant to both.

Pest controllers are calling on the EU to approve a third generation of stronger poison to deal with the growing problem of super rats.

Mr Whelan is calling on the government to create a 'rat tsar' to tackle the problem.

He also wants the EU to approve the third generation of rat poison to help tackle the problem, but plans for stronger poison face stiff opposition from campaigners amid fears that it could be harmful to humans.



Wildlife campaigners have also raised concerns that it could wreak havoc on animal and birds.



However, pest control experts warn that there will be even more monster rats found if they are allowed to feast on food near junk food shops, restaurants and household bin areas outside blocks of flats.



Big rodent: The giant monster rat was found in a family residence in Kingswood, south Dublin last week

Rats thrive in damp and soggy weather - of which the UK has seen plenty during the wettest year on record. Vermin are also swapping rural areas for the big city.



The government’s austerity measures have been blamed for making the problem far worse – after cuts to the budget for pest control.



And rats can carry illnesses which can be passed to humans, including Weil’s disease, which has flu-like symptoms initially but can lead to jaundice and kidney failure.



Across the country, councils have reported a rise in the number of rats being reported. Birmingham has the highest number of call-outs with 5,100 in the past year.



Liverpool council has also reported a recent rise in the number of reports of rats – 2,008 last year compared with 1,860 in 2012.

In Birmingham the rat hotspots include Ladywood, Hodge Hill and Perry Barr.



City pest control officer Colin Watts said that one of the biggest he’s seen was 14 or 15 inches long but that was just the body, without the tail.



He claimed that it would have been over 2 foot with its tail and compared it to the size of a small cat.



And the problem is not just confined to Britain.



Other huge rodents have been caught recently in homes in Stockholm and Dublin, where one rat was trapped by pest control after terrorising an Irish family in south Dublin.

The Dublin-based 'monster vermin' had been terrorising Grace and Ian Walters’ home in Kingswood shortly after they moved into their new flat.