:00:50. > :00:55.Stoo Rats. That's it, under the rubbish, under the blue bin,
:00:55. > :01:00.there's a rat. Cockroaches. That's actually in the
:01:00. > :01:09.door lock in the frame. They are firmly settled in there. Bedbugs.
:01:09. > :01:14.The stuff of night mares. Oh God! All this black stuff is bedbug
:01:14. > :01:20.dropings. There's a nice big adult. These will turn up in the poshest
:01:20. > :01:25.hotels and houses. The pest controllers on the front line,
:01:25. > :01:30.trying them to stop invading our homes. Happy days, cockroach again.
:01:30. > :01:35.As budget cuts bite and councils cut back on pest control... Do you
:01:35. > :01:40.fear your job is at risk? Yeah but there's plenty of pests out there.
:01:40. > :01:46.We go undercover to test how easy it is to become a pest controller
:01:46. > :01:49.and get hold of dangerous chemicals. Whoever sells there, where we've
:01:49. > :01:55.just been, do not understand the consequences of what this can do.
:01:55. > :01:59.We meet the pests fighting back. The lowest point was when I found a
:01:59. > :02:06.family of rats living in the poison bag, living there happily. We ask,
:02:06. > :02:13.are we in danger of losing the war? We've got the world's most
:02:13. > :02:23.resistant rat in this part of the world, and increasingly that
:02:23. > :02:25.
:02:25. > :02:32.No-one knows how many rats there are in the UK. It could be anything
:02:32. > :02:42.from 6-20 million. It's oven said we're never more than ten feet away
:02:42. > :02:46.
:02:46. > :02:52.from one. But this man, Peter Roy True. What counts as a rat
:02:52. > :02:56.infestation. On the floor, you get a lot of these down here, which are
:02:56. > :02:59.rat dropings. These things? That's dropping, they're fresh as well
:02:59. > :03:05.because they're still skwishy. Peter is a pest controller with
:03:05. > :03:10.Southwark Council in south London. Today he has rats in his sights.
:03:10. > :03:16.When I open the chamber last week, about 10-15 rats come running out
:03:16. > :03:24.at me so. You might see a couple, out of the bin chamber. No sign of
:03:24. > :03:29.any rats so far. Just a corpse. Normally, they're decome posed in
:03:29. > :03:34.about five days. When the rat is eaten the poison, its body because
:03:34. > :03:40.boys news, so you couldn't chuck it in a normal bin. You're going to
:03:40. > :03:47.take that with you now? Yeah. I'll get a cab I think. Yeah. I've
:03:47. > :03:54.a lovely van I have. But it isn't long before a live rat makes a
:03:54. > :04:04.break for freedom. Under the rubbish, there's a rat. It didn't
:04:04. > :04:13.
:04:13. > :04:23.So, to get a better look we set up It wasn't long before we saw that
:04:23. > :04:26.
:04:26. > :04:31.this block of flats has a serious problem. Rats don't like the
:04:31. > :04:40.daylight, but here there were so many of them, they were happily out
:04:40. > :04:46.searching for food. It's driving the residents to despair. Saw them
:04:46. > :04:52.up the drain, I thought it is kittens, it is awful. It is
:04:52. > :04:57.absolutely awful. To me, they're dirty things. And they multiply so
:04:57. > :05:01.quickly. Is it embarrassing? It is embarrassing, so long as you don't
:05:01. > :05:09.see them you're safe. Once you see them coming, it is like invasion.
:05:10. > :05:17.It is absolutely vile. Peter is going to try and kill the rats
:05:17. > :05:22.using poison. Left unchecked, they can cause real harm. Including in
:05:22. > :05:27.extreme cases liver and kidney infections. We're talking about
:05:27. > :05:33.illnesses like, with rat infestations, wiels disease, a
:05:33. > :05:37.particularly nasty illness. The transfer of disease, through rats
:05:37. > :05:40.coming through sewers and into people's houses. It is a broken
:05:40. > :05:44.drain, that will need to be repaired that allowed the rats to
:05:44. > :05:49.come up from the sewers in Southwark. In the meantime Peter
:05:49. > :05:55.will continue to put poison down. Last year, council pest controllers
:05:55. > :05:57.in the UK made nearly 300,000 rat- related visits to people's homes,
:05:57. > :06:02.according to the British pest control association. While that
:06:02. > :06:08.helped, manage their impact on us, no-one really knows what it is
:06:08. > :06:15.doing to the overall rat population. Councils deal with all sorts of
:06:15. > :06:20.other pests. And no-one is immune. In Stevenage, council pest
:06:20. > :06:29.controller, Chris Woodard is getting reacquainted with an old
:06:30. > :06:34.friend. The bedbug. You do not want these feeding on you at night.
:06:34. > :06:40.but eradicated in British homes after the Second World War, they're
:06:41. > :06:49.back. Thanks to our world travel and it is a easily spread. It will
:06:49. > :06:55.have to be washed. Oh God. All this black stuff. That's bedbug dropings,
:06:55. > :06:59.and there's a nice big adult there. This bits moving here. Bedbugs like
:06:59. > :07:05.nothing better than waiting until you fall asleep and then feasting
:07:05. > :07:10.on your blood. This is no relationship to hygiene or anything.
:07:10. > :07:17.Nothing to do this at all. These will turn up in the poshest houses
:07:17. > :07:23.and hotels. The same with all the pests, rats, mice, cockroaches.
:07:23. > :07:28.Back in Southwark, Peter's turning his attention to another pest.
:07:28. > :07:32.Cockroaches in this one, we have avenue had reports on this one.
:07:32. > :07:39.Southwark looks after more council properties than any other borough
:07:39. > :07:45.in the capital. Council pest controllers made almost 20,000
:07:45. > :07:52.cockroach-related visits last year. This flat has such a bad pest
:07:52. > :07:58.problem that the person who lives here has had to move out. That one
:07:58. > :08:03.up on the doors, they're coming out to say hello now. One there, one
:08:03. > :08:08.there. When you consider one egg can up to 38 cockroaches in it, it
:08:08. > :08:15.can be out of control very fast. Southwark's 24 pest controllers
:08:15. > :08:25.make up the biggest team in the country. Last year, they made
:08:25. > :08:25.
:08:25. > :08:29.60,000 visits. What are they? are even more bedbugs here, they're
:08:29. > :08:34.live and come back to. Council tenants here in Southwark, get the
:08:34. > :08:38.service free. Peter's been dealing with outbreaks like these for six
:08:38. > :08:44.years. How do you keep positive, when this is your Dail routine?
:08:44. > :08:50.know I can get rid of them and make it better, so it is like that,
:08:50. > :08:55.these won't stay like this once I finish with it. You get a sense of
:08:55. > :09:00.satisfaction? Yeah, it is something I enjoyed in my working life. If
:09:00. > :09:07.you made someone happy in your day's work, you did good no matter
:09:07. > :09:10.what you get paid. Cockroach again. They're attracted to you. They love
:09:11. > :09:15.me. For several years councils have been reducing their pest control
:09:15. > :09:20.teams in order to save money. For now, Southwark is continuing to
:09:20. > :09:24.fund its pest control service. But since the Government's
:09:24. > :09:29.austerity drive the rate which they've been cut by councils has
:09:29. > :09:37.increased. To keep theirs some felt forced to introduce charges, like
:09:37. > :09:41.here in Stevenage, where they brought in a �47 fee last year.
:09:41. > :09:47.When the council introduced charges, what impact did that have? Dropped
:09:47. > :09:51.by 50% on the public health stuff, yeah. Why do you reckon that is.
:09:51. > :09:59.think the people just felt, I'll try and deal with it ourselves, and
:09:59. > :10:09.we'll go out and buy poison for a few pounds and try to deal with it
:10:09. > :10:09.
:10:09. > :10:14.themselves. You've seen rats up here then less? I've noticed them
:10:14. > :10:20.for two or three months x Today, Chris has come to help Les Benford,
:10:20. > :10:25.he's fighting a rat problem, and at the moment he's losing. What have
:10:25. > :10:30.you done to control them, have you put down poison? I virtually,
:10:30. > :10:34.filled the holes in with bricks and stones, hoping it would deter them,
:10:34. > :10:39.but it hasn't workeded. Face with the having to pay, many people try
:10:39. > :10:45.to get rid of pests themselves. But as less found out, it is not as
:10:45. > :10:52.easy as you might think. And using poisons can be dangerous. Most
:10:52. > :11:00.people I see put it down, put it down in a tollly inappropriate way,
:11:00. > :11:05.poisoning wildlife and doing themselves some harm. The �47
:11:05. > :11:11.charge here in Stevenage gets you as many visits as you need.
:11:11. > :11:17.Callouts have increased this year. But Chris is not taking his job for
:11:17. > :11:22.Four to two. Do you fear your job is at risk. Of course, who wouldn't
:11:22. > :11:27.in this day and age, in the way the public sector and private sector,
:11:27. > :11:32.jobs have been lost. Of course it is a risk. But they're still loads
:11:32. > :11:36.of pests out there. Cutbacks like those are worrying environmental
:11:36. > :11:41.health experts. Resources to actually deal with the problem,
:11:41. > :11:48.around the country, are diminishing. And so, I believe, that the problem
:11:48. > :11:57.will get worse. Populations will increase. Damage, and the potential,
:11:57. > :12:01.loss of well being, will be increased as well. Some councils
:12:01. > :12:05.are going much further, than just charging for a service which had
:12:06. > :12:11.been once been free. They're disbanding their teams altogether,
:12:11. > :12:21.in the last two years, 29 councils have completely shut down their
:12:21. > :12:24.
:12:24. > :12:29.service. Cornwall, council here got rid of the pest control service
:12:30. > :12:34.last year, as one family found out toity cost. When did you realise
:12:34. > :12:38.you had a rat problem, rather than the odd rat here and there? When I
:12:38. > :12:44.saw three or four of them scurrying on the patio, I thought, actually
:12:44. > :12:48.this is getting silly and starting to smell out here of rat pee.
:12:48. > :12:54.year-old Miriam and Moses love playing in the garden. Their mum,
:12:54. > :12:58.Cheryl who is tpwhot so keen because of the last 18 months
:12:58. > :13:04.they've had rats. We have to risk assess our garden to make sure
:13:04. > :13:09.there's no dead rats in the traps or doesn't smell of rat pee. I wipe
:13:09. > :13:14.the table, and wipe down the slide with spray disinfectant, because I
:13:14. > :13:22.don't know where the rats have been, have they been on my table, I don't
:13:23. > :13:26.know. No longer able to call on the council, they considered hiring a
:13:26. > :13:30.private firm. We were quoted �100 to look at the ground and see what
:13:30. > :13:35.they wanted to do. And then, for each time they come back, it would
:13:35. > :13:40.be more money. On the money that my husband and myself both bring in,
:13:40. > :13:45.because they're registered disabled, we don't have that much money to
:13:45. > :13:49.start w we live hand to mouth. Because they couldn't afford the
:13:50. > :13:53.private company, they bought traps and managed to kill a few rats
:13:53. > :13:57.themselves. But that's not got rid of them. Councils have to keep
:13:57. > :14:04.their land free of rats and mice, and in extreme circumstances, they
:14:04. > :14:14.can force you to do the same. But they aren't legally obliged to
:14:14. > :14:15.
:14:15. > :14:19.If you can afford it, go through a professional. If you can't. You say
:14:19. > :14:23.those who can, go through a professional, if they can't? It is
:14:23. > :14:28.the grey area, that the cuts affect somebody, I would still expect my
:14:28. > :14:34.staff to give advice. I don't like this, it and I wouldn't expect the
:14:34. > :14:41.public to like T but I can only deliver what I can afford.
:14:41. > :14:50.those who can afford to shop around, there are 47 firms in Cornwall and
:14:50. > :14:56.hundreds across Britain. Neil Parker works for one of them.
:14:56. > :15:00.it is Cleankill. Business is good for his London-based firm. Up 9% on
:15:00. > :15:04.last year. There are at the males amongst that
:15:04. > :15:08.lot. This job is part of a new contract
:15:08. > :15:18.with a housing association. Neil believes the tenant may have
:15:18. > :15:22.been living like this for sometime. There's a harbourage and
:15:22. > :15:31.conservation of cockroaches, that's in a door lock in the frame. If you
:15:31. > :15:38.can see them, they are, firmly settled in there. Cockroaches can
:15:38. > :15:47.contaminate food and trigger allergies and asthma attacks.
:15:47. > :15:57.is the gentleman's bedroom. You see the markings on the mattress,
:15:57. > :16:00.
:16:00. > :16:06.There's a bedbug. So not only has he a German cockroach infestation,
:16:06. > :16:10.he has bedbugs as well. He's living with the insects, so when he's
:16:10. > :16:15.sleeping, they're feeding and when he's awake, they're sleeping. It is
:16:15. > :16:19.a relationship, it is a vicious circle in the end. While some firms
:16:19. > :16:23.can compete with councils on cost, others can't. One leading private
:16:23. > :16:30.contractor is confident companies can pick up some of the slack
:16:30. > :16:35.Council cutbacks. There's nothing sacred about a pest cell team, for
:16:35. > :16:39.a number of years now, we have had an erosion, and the sky's not
:16:39. > :16:43.fallen out. There's not a sudden outbreak of pestness the locations
:16:43. > :16:47.that have had private contractors. There's no evidence using a private
:16:47. > :16:52.contractors will be inferior. so, their services may be out of
:16:52. > :16:57.reach for some of the most vulnerable. Local authorities are,
:16:57. > :17:04.the safety net for society. And many people who can't afford pest
:17:04. > :17:10.control need to find some sort of support. They're oven the ones that
:17:10. > :17:17.have the - often the ones that have the most serious problems near and
:17:17. > :17:21.where they live. There were 57 complaints about pest control
:17:21. > :17:31.companies in the last flee months and experts worry some are driven
:17:31. > :17:36.
:17:36. > :17:40.to the cheapest end of the market. To cowboys. Like me. You don't need
:17:40. > :17:48.any qualifications or license to become a pest controller. So I set
:17:48. > :17:54.up shop in an area that's done away with the council-run pest control
:17:54. > :18:04.teams Some phone numbers in a newsagent's window, and ads in
:18:04. > :18:04.
:18:04. > :18:08.local papers, and I'm almost set to g - go. Within the week the phone
:18:08. > :18:13.was reining. Unsuspected customers expecting a cheap and effective
:18:13. > :18:18.service, lucky for them, I passed on a pest controller, qualified to
:18:18. > :18:23.deal with the problems. In a matter of days, I proved how easy it is to
:18:23. > :18:28.set up in the pest control business. There's low barriers to entering in
:18:28. > :18:33.pest control. My concern is those people untrained and unlpsed and
:18:33. > :18:37.unregulated and uninsured, are going in people's houses and could
:18:37. > :18:42.potentially cause serious problems around health issues, up to and
:18:42. > :18:47.including something that could be lethal. I got the van, I know I can
:18:47. > :18:51.get the customers. Now, I'm going in search of the chemicals the pest
:18:51. > :19:01.controllers use. Some of them are incredibly dangerous. And as a
:19:01. > :19:11.cowboy, I shouldn't be able to get hold of them. The most dangerous on
:19:11. > :19:15.sale is in the same class as arsenic and strychnine. It is
:19:15. > :19:21.called aluminium phosphide. It is illegal to sell it to someone
:19:21. > :19:28.untrained like me. It is used to gas rats. We went under cover to
:19:28. > :19:34.test how well the law is being upheld. They should ask to see my
:19:34. > :19:44.ID and proof I know how to use this stuff safely. I visited eight shops
:19:44. > :20:00.
:20:00. > :20:10.Here I was turned away. It was the But at this shop it was a different
:20:10. > :20:31.
:20:31. > :20:39.Here the salesman asked me lots of I can't show a license, because I
:20:39. > :20:44.don't have one. He should see some proof I know what I'm doing. But
:20:44. > :20:54.after giving a false name and address, he sells it to me anyway.
:20:54. > :20:57.
:20:57. > :21:01.Aluminium phosphide is so dangerous, we're not allowed to transport it,
:21:01. > :21:07.so we have a pest controller who is qualified to carry it on hand to
:21:07. > :21:13.take it off us. This is seriously dangerous stuff. Very, very
:21:13. > :21:17.worrying. This stuff as you can see, it explains everything on here, it
:21:17. > :21:20.is incredibly dangerous to the environment, it's been known in the
:21:20. > :21:30.past to actually kill pest controllers who have not handled it
:21:30. > :21:39.
:21:39. > :21:49.in the long way. Locked out of Here, fewer questions. Again I
:21:49. > :21:55.
:21:55. > :22:01.She too, appears to be breaking the law. In total, we bought this
:22:01. > :22:06.poison from three of the eight shops we visited. I can't believe
:22:06. > :22:12.it. I can't believe it. These people clearly don't realise, what
:22:12. > :22:17.this stuff is. They, whoever sells this, where we've just been, do not
:22:17. > :22:24.understand the consequences of what this can do. Just one onity own,
:22:24. > :22:27.never mind two. It is crazy. Untrained, unlicenseed and
:22:27. > :22:32.unqualified. There's absolutely no way, that someone like me, should
:22:32. > :22:38.be getting hold of products as dangerous as this. After visiting a
:22:38. > :22:46.few shops and answering very few questions, here we are. Tighter
:22:46. > :22:53.regulations will be up and running by the end of next year, to
:22:53. > :22:59.preprevent the unlawful selling of product like these. They want to
:22:59. > :23:03.Of people's homes. The pest control industry is an important one.
:23:03. > :23:09.Because pest controllers should be our front line of defence against
:23:09. > :23:17.the bugs and residents that can have a serious impact on public
:23:17. > :23:22.health. But what happens when the pests fight back? You've always had
:23:22. > :23:28.rats here. Always had rats here, ever since I've been here and
:23:28. > :23:34.before. In the countryside, rats come with the territory. But two
:23:34. > :23:38.years ago, thousands of them nearly cost farmer David Cripps his
:23:38. > :23:41.livilihood in West Berkshire. How bad it was, at its worst, the rat
:23:41. > :23:48.problem. There wouldn't have been a building on the farm we wouldn't
:23:48. > :23:53.have seen a rat in. At that time. We were buying poison, at a fast
:23:53. > :23:59.rate of knots, and we just weren't killing the rats. What he didn't
:23:59. > :24:03.know then was his farm was in the middle of an area where rats had
:24:03. > :24:08.become resistant to the only poisons he was allowed to use.
:24:08. > :24:12.lowest point was when I found the family of rats living in the poison
:24:12. > :24:19.bag, and living there quite happily. They were eating a feeding it, and
:24:19. > :24:24.it was just like giving them Kandy, sweets. The problem began because
:24:24. > :24:28.of the genetic mutation in a smul number of rats which made them
:24:28. > :24:35.resistant to poisons, so their population grew. We got the world's
:24:35. > :24:42.most resistant rat in this part of the world. And inceasingly that
:24:42. > :24:48.resistance is spreading. Stranger rat reaistance has been found in
:24:48. > :24:55.areas from Kent to Scotland there. Are three stronger poisons he could
:24:55. > :25:00.use, but he's banned from putting them outdoors, because of the risk
:25:00. > :25:04.they poise to wildlife like this Red Kite. The problem is the
:25:05. > :25:08.resistant rat spread all of the country, and we're in a situation
:25:08. > :25:12.where you can use the three compounds at the present time
:25:12. > :25:14.you're not allowed to use. Although their use is controversial, the
:25:14. > :25:24.Health and Safety Executive is launching a consultation, about
:25:24. > :25:33.
:25:33. > :25:38.allowing the use of the stronger In the meantime, David's had to
:25:38. > :25:44.resort to extreme tactics with his war with his rats. This is a
:25:44. > :25:52.standard, air, 22 rifle, so it is running on 12 roupd and this is a
:25:53. > :25:59.night scope, which is ideal for the job. He's hireed local pest
:25:59. > :26:05.controllers, Stephen and Graham to shoot them. It's worst, team of
:26:05. > :26:09.three guns and the first night it was over 300 we shot. In one night?
:26:09. > :26:15.In one night. Did that make a dent in the population here? Not for the
:26:15. > :26:23.first week. Nothing at all. It's taken a long time to get to where
:26:23. > :26:33.we are now. But with rats the battle is never over. Stephen and
:26:33. > :26:48.
:26:48. > :26:52.Graham regularly bring their rifles So, resistant rats, rogue pest
:26:52. > :26:57.controllers and council cutbacks, they could all pose a serious risk
:26:57. > :27:03.to public health according to some experts. And they want a battle
:27:03. > :27:08.plan. They are a number of Government departments that have an
:27:08. > :27:12.interest in public health. Particularly with regard to pest
:27:12. > :27:18.control. The question is are they being co-ordinated in any shape or
:27:18. > :27:22.form. My view is no they're not. We don't know what the numbers are. We
:27:22. > :27:28.don't know whether or not we have the same populations of rodents now
:27:28. > :27:36.as we did 20 years ago. That data isn't available. Why not? We ought
:27:36. > :27:42.to be selecting it. - collecting it. We tried to find out who is taking
:27:42. > :27:45.the lead on pest control and public health. The Department of Health
:27:45. > :27:49.said it wasn't something for them. So we went to the Health Protection
:27:49. > :27:53.Agency, who passed us on. To here, the department for the environment,
:27:53. > :27:57.food and rural affairs, who told us that pest control wasn't really
:27:57. > :28:00.their problem. So they, like the Department of Health, sent us here,
:28:00. > :28:04.to the department for communities and local government. They didn't
:28:05. > :28:11.seem to want to take the lead either. They said, pest control is
:28:11. > :28:16.a matter for local councils. So, with no-one seemingly at the helm,
:28:16. > :28:20.and at a time of cutbacks, it is feared we may have to live with
:28:20. > :28:24.more pestness the future. If the cats can't do anything about it,
:28:24. > :28:29.and we can't afford it, we have to live with it, and bait our traps
:28:29. > :28:32.every night and remove the rats every morning As far as public
:28:32. > :28:37.health pests go, they would be out of control t would take
:28:37. > :28:41.considerable time and that's the problem of course. None of this is
:28:41. > :28:46.measureable quickly, it is going to be a long-term approach. If
:28:46. > :28:51.something will happen, it will be over, three, five, perhaps ten
:28:51. > :28:55.years. If you hadn't got the rat problem under control, what impact
:28:55. > :28:58.would it have had on your business? I wouldn't be in business t would
:28:58. > :29:08.have taken the business, because they would have won. Without a
:29:08. > :29:12.