We’re Under Attack!

FORGET the Rogarians, that shadowy band of Bulgarians and Romanians the media have been warning us about.

The Rogarians are hardly arriving in massed ranks. Simona Tatulescu, a Romanian tax expert living in the UK who works as a consultant advising new migrants, tells the Independent: "When people return to their offices this week expecting to see lots of Romanian plasterers or Bulgarian cleaners, they will be disappointed.”

He says Romanians aren’t all that excited at the prospect of vacuuming the floor and living on benefits. They want their own businesses and fulfilment.

“WE SHOW BULGARIANS ROAD TO PARADISE,” said the Sun earlier in the week. Paradise was Dundee.

So no invasion of Rogarains, who may well have read guidebooks on the UK. Instead Britain is being besieged by a plague of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Please excuse the link between Rogarians (Migrantus workus) and vermin. Certain sections of the press have portrayed them as one and the same thing. This is an untruth we are happy to highlight the fact.

So the rats are here. As the Times says, their numbers are at record numbers. The National Pest Technicians Association says rat numbers have increased by 39 per cent in 2005.

The paper notes the 2006 National Rodent Survey. It found that rats were surging in response to bird feeds, compost bins, litter and neglected sewers. On top of the rats, or among them, the survey noted a 14 per cent increase in instances of house mice (Mus domesticus) infestation.

Rat killers and vivisectionists have never had it so good. But life might get worse for the rest of humanity. The Times warns of the risk poised by rats, like Weil’s disease, toxoplasmosis and salmonella.

In total, there are believed to be 70 million brown rats at large in Britain. Londoners are never more than 14 meters away from a rat. Last year, that figure was 18 metres.

And they are big rats. The Herald talks of a rat 22inches long – the size of a domestic cat.

And this is a clue to how we can deal with this surge in the UK population. We are a nation of pet lovers, so why not befriend a rat?

Now that you can catch campylobacter enteritis, cat scratch fever, salmonella, toxoplasmosis, hookworms, roundworms, and tapeworms, ringworm and rabies.

It might be that cats are not all that different from cats. They have just had bad press. Like the Rogarians…

Posted: 5th, January 2007 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink