“There will be something safe,” he says, kicking an overflowing waste container. “Rats are like little survival machines; wherever you have reliable access to food waste, they will come back.”
Coates dams have become more visible in London as the closure of England takes longer.
In addition, the animals are on the move.
Pest drivers say that as many restaurants and office buildings in bustling central London remain empty, rats are forced to migrate to more residential areas in search of food.
Families who spend more time at home, and eat all the meals there, have caused an increase in garbage and this is attracting rats to suburban housing. Meanwhile, bird feeders, which remain dormant throughout the winter, encourage rodents to dig in the back gardens.
“We had the case of an old woman who used to feed her beloved robins,” Coates tells CNN. “When he called us, there were maybe 10 to 15 rats digging around the flower beds,” he adds.
Paul Claydon, another exterminator, based on the edge of Eping Forest, east of the capital, has seen worse. He says he recently killed a colony trying to dig into a rabbit hut to eat an unsuspecting family pet.
“We may see and hear them more often, working from home in the office under the loft … but I’m afraid London may have a big surprise when it reopens,” says Claydon. “Especially if companies and properties that had problems haven’t been up to date with their pest control plans.”
Coates and Claydon have left long careers in other fields to create small businesses in what has become a booming sector.
Coates, an Iraq war veteran, founded his costume five years ago and has since written an e-book called “War and Plague: From Basra to Bedbugs.”
Claydon spent 25 years in IT at a financial services company before starting his business two years ago. “I wanted something that was recession-proof and has been busy non-stop,” he says.
Claydon says he typically gets about ten rodent calls a week, but during closing it has been “easily 20 more.”
The British Pest Control Association (BPCA), which represents 700 parasite catchers across the country, said its members reported a 51% rise in rodent activity during the first closure, the spring 2020, and a 78% increase in November after another shutdown They have not yet calculated this year’s figures, but reported that CNN’s observations had increased, presenting a public health problem that many homeowners of houses can be occupied alone.
“We may now see rats where we normally wouldn’t because they’re so desperate,” says Natalie Bungay of the BPCA. “Rats can chew very hard substances like soft metals and brick.”
When it comes to controlling rats, it seems like London doesn’t have a general plan.
The mayor’s office told CNN that the London council office was the best to answer questions on the issue. But they said they did not collect data on the issue because that was the job of each of the 32 municipalities in the capital.
A Richmond upon Thames district spokesman, however, told CNN that it does not collect data on rats and does not offer pest control services.
In 2017, after a video of rats spilling from a flower bed in Harrow district went viral, conservatives at the London Grand Assembly (GLA) commissioned a report that found more than 100 complaints every day to advices.
No one really knows how many rats there are in London, although some private polls of exterminators claim they could reach 20 million. There are likely to be more than nine million human inhabitants in the city, with slow population growth, according to the National Statistics Office.
Meanwhile, rats can multiply rapidly. Research by pest control firm Rentokil, cited in the GLA report, claimed that only one breeding pair of rats can lead to the birth of about 1,250 in a year.
The size of rats also increases. Claydon says it’s not uncommon for him to catch a rat measuring up to 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) these days. Many, he says, require stronger traps and more poison to kill.
Bungay says the best pest control starts with prevention. This means sealing food waste away from home in suitable rubbish bins, keeping food locked inside the house and checking that all air openings are protected with steel mesh and cracks filled with steel and cement. The gardening enthusiast should also be aware that heaps of compost attract rats, she says.
London residents are also used to seeing their new neighbors and are alarmed by their audacity.
“In fact, I saw one coming up to me as I walked,” says Jen Johnson, who lives in the eastern district of Tower Hamlets.
“I saw another stream through a block of flats and called. I’ve been living in London for four years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” he says. “They show up in places I used to think were scenic. But now it’s like, oh, there’s a giant rat. Oh, great.”
Tower Hamlets, which does offer its residents some free help with parasites, told CNN that “anecdotally, our pest control team has received fewer calls during the pandemic.” However, a district spokesman did not provide data to support that claim and said he does not keep figures on the number of dead rats.
The city of Westminster, the district of Harrow, and the districts of Waltham Forest and Redbridge, which are near Epping Forest, did not respond with any comment at the time of publication.
CNN’s Oscar Featherstone contributed to this report.