Paul Claydon opened the trap and couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
The owner of Fast Track Pest Control in Essex has been trapping rodents for years, but this time he measured one at almost 40 centimeters long. And it wasn’t an isolated case: according to his own account, reports of rats remained high throughout the summer, something he himself describes as unusual in his line of work.
Claydon attributes the phenomenon to increasingly mild winters and garbage that accumulates unchecked, perfect conditions for these animals to reproduce and grow larger than normal. He also warns that size isn’t the only problem: rats contaminate food, damage structures, and can gnaw through electrical wires, potentially causing fires. A similar case affected Jemma and Sean Williams, whose home was invaded by rodents that resisted traps and bait. And it’s not an isolated incident in the country: between 2023 and 2025 alone, more than 518.000 infestations were reported in the United Kingdom, a figure that confirms the problem goes far beyond Essex.
