The British Pest Control Association has published a research document for 2014 with data provided by 407 authorities throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
http://www.bpca.org.uk/pages/index.cfm?page_id=374
The research has highlighted that, despite the fact that most pest control treatments were administered in England, overall there were more treatments undertaken in Wales per person than in any other country, equating to 13.39 treatments per thousand residents, compared to 7.7 treatments in England. Also, for the third year running, pest controllers working for local authorities in Wales administer more treatments a year (862 per pest controller) than any other country and 112 more than last year. Again results show Greater London has more pest control operators and administered more treatments than Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. However, the results have highlighted that, despite this difference in resource, there were over twice as many treatments per resident administered in Wales and Northern Ireland than there were in Greater London.
There are ten Welsh authorities in the "worst" 50. In order they are:
Blaenau Gwent 9/407
RCT 11/407
Merthyr Tydfil 12/407
Bridgend 13/407
Swansea 18/407
Monmouth 22/407
NPT 38/407
Caerphilly 40/407
Torfaen 47/407
Pembrokeshire 50/407
Clearly we have a particular problem with pests and vermin in South Wales, predominantly in the valleys. I've been aware of the problem for some time now - some pests are just about impossible to get rid of. They've been around all my life, living close by me but seldom seen. If you are very lucky you may catch a glimpse, but generally they try to avoid close contact with the common man.
Maybe we need some imaginative thinking to solve the problem.
As a child I was fascinated by the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who promised to cure the town of its problems and did so by magically playing his pipe to gather the rats as he walked through the town, leading them to drown in the River Weser.
If you remember the poem the Pied Piper wore a "queer long coat from heel to head, .... half of yellow, and half of red". We need to remake the legend. We need a man with such a coat to walk from Pembroke to Bridgend, then cut up to the valleys, on to Monmouth. He needs to be a man used to being surrounded by vermin because of the numbers he will encounter on his journey. He could pipe a magical tune the whole way, say "Things can only get better", "The Red Flag" or even "Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika" . The rats, and hopefully all the other vermin, would follow him all the way and could then be led on to the River Wye, to perish forever.
So who do we know has a coat half of yellow, half of red, who likes blowing his own trumpet pipe? I cannot bring anyone to mind. But if you can think of someone, remember that the going rate for the Piper was 1000 guilders. Would this person get out of bed in the morning for that?
The ironical thing about Robert Browning's quite excellent poem is it ends with the lines
"And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice,
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!"
Promises, promises. Now where have I heard that before?
