Berlin has a rat problem. Sylvia Kostner of the state health and social affairs office told Bild that the reports of rats would increase for about five years. "That's why we had more than 10,000 control measures for the first time in 2017," says Kästner. This is due to the many foods that find omnivores. Especially in the summer, when many people eat outside, picnic and barbecue remains often lag behind. According to Bild, the exterminators in Berlin are currently even overloaded.

There is another factor in Leipzig. Katja Gläß from the local water supply told the "Bild" that the drought was a problem: "Because of the small rain, the retreat rooms of the rats in the sewers remain dry." If the animals find shelter there in the cold in the winter, because the sewer system is warmer than holes in the earth and even dug tunnels, the place in the summer sometimes becomes the deadly trap for the rats, who can drown with strong showers. If these showers continue like this year, the rats are doing very well. Especially because they have few natural enemies in the city. These include foxes, martens and dogs, but in some cities also birds of prey.

Eating from the toilet

In sewers, rats not only find protection, but also food waste, which many people in the toilet drains. In order to be able to take specific action against the rats – according to the "Bild" – it is also clarity in Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt cameras in the sewers where the animals come from. Then you could specifically design gifbait.

But even outside the sewage system, the rats can do well because they are real survivors. Females can surrender about 18 cubs about eight times a year, which in turn can be reproduced after two months. And they really eat everything: not just vegetables and meat, but also paper, beeswax and soap. Useful for this is her extraordinary sense of smell. More than 1000 receptors in the nose help them to find food and even make better noses than dogs. This is very useful in some situations. In Mozambique, trained rats are successfully used to snipe landmines.

Ratspest in Germany has yet to be stopped, but rats and their parasites, such as the rat flea, are the carriers of more than 70 different diseases. Including hantavirus, salmonella and the plague.

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