A Fife man has had his back garden taken over by a rats.
David Cook spotted up to 12 of the rodents scurrying around his garden and patio in Kirkcaldy.
He has had to keep his dog Domino inside as he is frightened it will be attacked by one of the rodents.
Yesterday, he hit out at Fife Council’s environmental health department for keeping him waiting for two days before sending out a pest control officer.
According to the council’s website, brown rats spread diseases including rat bite fever and Weil’s disease and are considered to be a significant threat to human health.
Motor engineer David said: “I am annoyed at Fife Council. It would be different if I had said there was just one rat, but there are several. They are so dirty.
“I’m worried for Domino as they carry a lot of diseases.”
David phoned the council at around 6pm on Wednesday to report the problem after noticing four or five rats running round the garden.
By the next day there were around a dozen of the creatures.
He phoned again on Thursday morning and was told there was no record of his complaint.
When he paid the £52.20 fee he was assured the matter would be dealt with urgently and he expected that to be within hours.
But it was Friday before an officer arrived at his home.
Although he was scathing of how his complaint had been handled, Mr Cook was full of praise for the environmental health officer who eventually attended and reckoned the rats had come from a nearby field that had recently been harvested.
He said: “He really knew his stuff and did a really professional job. He knew all about rats and it was really interesting.”
A spokeswoman for the council confirmed a pest control officer had attended the property at around 11am and laid traps and poison.
She said: “Our response time is 24 hours if the rats are inside the house and five days if they are outside the property.
“In this case, we have had someone out within two days.”
Photo by David Wardle