The very wet summer throughout most of the country has resulted in a lot of crops proving difficult to harvest, as machines can’t get onto the ground and the crops are also unsuitably ripe, or dry to harvest.
Alistair McEntyre, at Assured Environmental Services says “This will suit rats and mice down to the ground. To date, we have already had double the number of enquiries for problems on farms, mainly with rats, than we would normally have had at this time of year. We feel sure it is to do with more and more Whole Crop being grown within the area, as it is good dairying practice. This has increased the rat population in the area, as they have food in the fields all summer, which wasn’t normal for the Lancashire area.
Alistair mentions that Assured Environmental Services consistently deal with problems at farms in the Penrith area, where their second depot is based, and had always put this down to the dry soil and the fact that barley is commonly grown in the area, used for barley beef etc. Rat numbers around the Penrith area, however, have also increased, which they attribute to the crops still being on the fields and water being readily available all year, as rats have to drink at least once a day.
Alistair says, “Farms can be overrun suddenly, in the short space of a week, so our free, emergency call out for any problems with rats in between the scheduled visits, means that farmers can be safe in the knowledge that, not only will we be on site quickly, but it will also cost them no extra money to control however many rats may descend on them”.