A mum couldn't drive herself to work after she claimed rats chewed through wires in the engine of her Ford Fiesta.
Karen Burkert, from Huyton, claims that for the second time in two months she came to start her car outside her home only to find rats had built a nest on the engine. The 59-year-old told the ECHO she wasn't able to get to work after her car wouldn't start due to the damage done by the rodents.
She said: "I tried to drive to work but the car wouldn't start and it turned out that rats had nested in the engine and chewed through wires.
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"It's the second time this has happened in two months, and it's happened before that as well. I had to walk halfway to work and then disturb my daughter to get her to take me. She has a family of her own."
Karen, who works at a doctors' surgery, described her "frustration" at the pest problem. She added: "It's just frustrating, you look after your house and keep it clean, just for stuff like this to go on outside.
"There's no waste around my home or my garden, the garden is all clean and pebbled so there's nothing here to attract rats."
According to The Express, the UK's rat population has grown massively since the coronavirus pandemic, with numbers estimated to have surged by a quarter to an estimated 150 million – while some estimate the number to be even higher, at around a quarter of a billion.
If you find rats in your vehicle, advice from forum Pest Detective advises that you use strong odours, such as peppermint oil to drive the pests away.
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