A woman from Hull has been left feeling “physically ill” after her home became infested with rats and flies, with the bugs swarming her walls and floors. Debra Burnett has said rats started damaging her home in 2018 and have been causing havoc ever since. Ms Burnett believes the rats originally came from a nearby property, but admits she hears squeaks at night when she gets in from work.
Ms Burnett has been in contact with Yorkshire Water and Hull City Council’s Environmental Health Team about the issues.
Speaking to HullLive, she said: “They’ve wrecked my house that I have worked hard for 14 years trying to make ends meet and I find it disgusting that no one even reported it. I go to work, come home and keep myself to myself but it’s been soul-destroying.
“I live alone. I’ve lived in this house since 2006. Every night I sit there in the bathroom quietly and know I can’t do anything about it and I can randomly hear them squeaking sometimes.”
She added that there are large holes in the back of her kitchen and under the floor which she has filled in with wire wool. She also said the rats had been eating the sealant from her toilet.
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Ms Burnett says she contacted Environmental Health who lured the rats with bait before they died.
She added: “This is the longest they’ve been baiting. Over a year now every two weeks they were coming. One was in the kitchen, but it went back up the holes underneath the cupboard and went back out.
“One night it was like something out of The Exorcist. The flies, hundreds of them flew out the back. I had to go home from work and shut all the doors and the floor was covered in flies and the windows were covered with flies.
“It looked like somebody had died. I felt physically ill. I didn’t want to eat or go home.”
Ms Burnett said she was advised by Environmental Health to buy a CCTV camera for her drain, this ended up revealing holes in the sewer pipe; however, they cancelled the digging process to repair the pipe.
Ms Burnett claims Yorkshire Water passed the case onto the council to deal with as the cause of the rats was a secondary issue.
However, she has since said the council told her the cause of the rats was the redundant pipe Yorkshire Water was meant to fix.
Principal Environmental Health Officer at Hull City Council, Tom Copeland, said: “Following a complaint of rats within the property, officers visited and laid poisoned baits and have made regular visits to check and replenish these baits since.
“To identify the defect allowing the rats to escape from the drainage system and into the property, a drainage survey was carried out in February 2022 by a contractor on behalf of the owner.
“During this survey, a number of defects on the sewer were identified. It is the responsibility of Yorkshire Water to make these repairs. They have been made aware of the work required and issues being caused.”
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said: “We have been out to investigate on a number of occasions but the rodent problem is not directly related to our network of pipes. We have met with Environmental Health and asked them to support Ms Burnett with the issue.”
The saga continues.
