After a video showing dozens of rats scurrying along the quayside in the city was shared online, Derry and Strabane District Council began an investigation.<\/p>\n
The council has now said that it has \u201cimplemented immediate measures to assist local landowners and businesses to address this issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
The council added that its Environmental Health team has determined that rodents were not nesting within the area of the planters on the quayside, but were using the planters as \u201ctransit routes\u201d to access food elsewhere.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson added: \u201cThe Council is taking proactive steps to ensure the swift resolution of this situation, including the removal of some of planters in order to disrupt these pathways.<\/p>\n
“We are also actively engaging with relevant third-party landowners in the vicinity to ensure comprehensive pest control measures are implemented across the area. Public health remains our top priority, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video, which received over 500,000 views on TikTok, shows dozens of rats scurrying around the popular walkway.<\/p>\n
Ciaran Faulkner, who captured the footage, said the video \u201cdidn\u2019t really do it justice\u201d, as there were many more of the vermin running around.<\/p>\n
He added that he\u2019d never seen so many rats in the area.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt seems to be getting worse \u2014 and around food places; it just isn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could you not be concerned for health and safety?\u201d<\/p>\n
Patricia Page from North West Pest Control said that the rodents appearing from the planters is \u201cindicative of a bad issue\u201d, and gave her insight for how the problem could be combatted. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll generally only see rats during the day if there\u2019s competition for food,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn that particular video it\u2019s clear to see that there\u2019s quite an overgrowth of vegetation. In my opinion I would advise cutting that way back to minimise harbourage.\u201d <\/p>\n
The pest expert added: \u201cI would either put them flat on the ground or ideally raise them up a bit more.<\/p>\n
“If the rat doesn’t feel secure in a particular environment then they’ll move on.”<\/p>\n
Derry City and Strabane People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin said: \u201cSightings of rodents along the quay are concerning, especially for establishments providing food.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that he would \u201curge businesses and everyone using the area to ensure all possible steps are taken to ensure health and safety are the priority\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a video showing dozens of rats scurrying along the quayside in the city was shared online, Derry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[5815,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-106852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-derry-city-and-strabane-district-council","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114518742252482023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}