Dawn of the Super Rat... and blame the end of weekly rubbish collections

The demise of weekly rubbish collections has helped create a new breed of 'super rat', vermin control experts warned.

With many councils now removing bin bags only once a fortnight in order to meet Government-imposed recycling targets, a new type of bait-resistant rodent has evolved among the millions of tons of rubbish left rotting in streets and gardens.

Around one third of the 376 local authorities in England and Wales are now only picking up household waste and recyclable rubbish on alternate weeks - with the rest expected to follow suit within a few years.

But the strategy has given rise to an explosion in rat numbers foraging among the bags of decomposing food which pile up during the long stretches between collection days.

Scientist Martina Flynn, who has been commissioned by the British Pest Control Association to find new ways of combating the menace, said: 'If piles of rubbish are left out for two week - or even longer during holiday periods - that's exactly what they need to survive and flourish.

'Rats are becoming harder to control, because they know food is easy to find and will eat that rather than poisoned bait. They are acquiring a behavioural resistance which means they won't eat what's in the bait box.

'They seem to have learned that an unfamiliar object, such as a trap, can be dangerous to them. So they go for the food instead.'

She added: 'Rats are becoming more intelligent. It's almost as if they are one step ahead of us.

'We need to find ways of dealing with this new breed, because conventional methods seem to be no longer effective.'

And rats are getting bigger, with giants of the species - bloated by their ever-richer diet of processed food from overflowing bins - growing to more than 1ft in length.

Environmental scientist Doretta Cocks, who runs the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: 'Recycling is good in principle, but householders are not getting the service they have paid for in their council tax.

'We should be concerned with the environment we are creating as a result of these measures and act before we have an insurmountable pest problem leading to a 21st Century plague.'

Among Ms Cocks' supporters is Baroness Knight, who has raised the subject in the House of Lords.