South

Filming a story about rats isn’t as easy as you’d think simply because the wonderful logic of television demands that you capture the little blighters on film.

But they’re everywhere, right?

Wrong. They’re everywhere until you have a camera in hand, thumb hovering over the record button - then they’re ominously absent.

Yes: forget the birth of the super rat, it’s the existence of the PR-managed, media-shy rodent that should be of most interest.

So, if you’ve had the occasional visit from a furry, whiskered creature – as I often have (mine seemed to be the size of a rabbit) – forget the poison and just rig up a camera wherever the intruder lurks and your rat problem should disappear. That’s my theory anyway…

The 'Rat Pack'

When we started filming we followed Tony, one of Oxford’s three pest controllers, setting up infra-red cameras wherever he suggested.

The only problem was all these locations had already been treated with poison so the rats weren’t too keen on hanging around to have their picture taken.

Overflowing rubbish - magnet for rats.

After several attempts we hit the jackpot, and although I hesitate to admit it, we eventually found and filmed a pack of rats in the back yard of a student house.

The reason for my hesitation is that in my opinion it’s all too easy to point the finger at Oxford’s student community.

That said I should hold my hands up and admit that I took very little care or responsibility over rubbish or recycling when I was at university – there were far more pressing issues to deal with, mostly served chilled...

Rodents and rubbish

In fact, my second year accommodation would have been a rat haven after me and my housemates rediscovered the childish delight of spud gun fights.

Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of gradually fermenting potato pellets would carpet the hall and stairs for days on end. Nice!

Rat trap - Joe with poison device.

But in Oxford, there’s loads of factors potentially contributing to the rat problem including fortnightly collections, complicated recycling policies, flats that don’t have wheelie bins, fly-tipping and so on.

It only takes one or two residents who don’t care and pile up all their black bags on a street corner to create rat problems for the whole neighbourhood.

As for the students we filmed with, our cameras were obviously a great source of entertainment as more than once our lengthy 'rat cam' footage showed hunks of cheese flying past the camera – maybe a great trick to lure the rats out for our film, but possibly not the best way of sorting out their rat problem!

Contact me...

Send your emails and programme ideas to joe.crowley@bbc.co.uk

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