A horrified mum discovered NINE rats scratching around in her wheelie bin after the rodents spilled on to streets when a nest was disturbed by workers clearing a massive fly-tipping site.
Shocking video footage shows the rats piled into a grey general waste bin in the village of Plean, leaping in the air desperately trying to make an escape.
It’s thought that the rats managed to make their way inside by gnawing a hole at the top, before they became trapped.
Mum-of-six Debbie Burns says that since the clean up of a fly-tip dump behind homes – which saw 155 tonnes of rubbish removed from a M9 embankment at a cost of £50,000 – residents in nearby Wallace Crescent have been plagued by the rodents.
She says her children – aged between 18 months and 17-years-old – have been unable to play outside over safety fears.
Debbie added: “I have six kids in this house and can’t let them out in their own garden to play due to the whole street being plagued by rats since BEAR Scotland cleared the embankment behind the houses and disturbed the nests.”
BEAR Scotland say that “extensive fly-tipping” is to blame for the issues.
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A spokesman said: “When we were originally made aware of issues with vermin in this area we investigated and a programme of pest control was undertaken. However, the main issue was identified as extensive fly-tipping on Scottish Minister’s Land to the rear of the properties in Wallace Crescent.
“As a result, in February we completed a clear-up operation that saw the removal of 155 tonnes of waste material. The job had originally been estimated to cost over £20,000 but ultimately exceeded £50,000 due to the amount of material that had built up.
“We kept the residents updated to the situation, giving them information on how to contact us.
“It is suspected that this waste was a key contributing factor to the original issue. We have recently been made aware that there is an ongoing situation with vermin and our specialist pest control contractors have been tasked to undertake a further programme to treat the area.”
Wallace Crescent has 200 houses and the side that bounds the motorway is around 200-300 yards long.
Debbie says that she contacted the council last month to arrange for pest control to attend but that nobody ever showed up.
Stirling Council’s environmental health team visited residents last week and say they are working with Transport Scotland and BEAR Scotland to ensure appropriate pest control measures are put in place to address the issue.
A spokesperson said: “We realise this has been an alarming situation for residents and will be contacting council tenants directly to provide pest control treatment at no cost to them.
“In the meantime, we would encourage people to dispose of waste and recycling responsibly, using the facilities provided either at home or at recycling centres. The council regularly highlights fly-tipping as a crime that blights society, and this is one example of how negatively it can impact communities.”
Ward councillor Alasdair Macpherson believes overflowing bins – which are emptied every four weeks – could be contributing to the issue.
He said: “Whilst I’ve no doubt that their nests were disturbed after BEAR Scotland removed debris, several residents told me that they saw rats climbing into grey bins that can’t close fully because they are overflowing due to them only being emptied once a month now.
“The problems residents are experiencing at Wallace Crescent problem has proven that moving to a monthly emptying has had unintended consequences that no one could have predicted.”
In May 2018, we told how work to electrify the railway line through Stirling left parts of Cornton infested with rats, according to residents.
People living in two streets near the railway line saw the number of the rodents soar since the work began. Rats were spotted at properties in Westwood Crescent and Lomond Crescent.
It’s believed a rats nest was disturbed by pile driving works carried out by Network Rail on the line, which sits just yards from houses. The work was carried out as part of the project to electrify the Dunblane–Stirling–Alloa line.
The rodents were seen scaling fences and discovered in gardens and bins. One resident made a gruesome discovery in her bin.
She said: “I went out to the bin and there were two dead rats in it and they had drowned. One of the rats had begun to eat the other.”
