2025-04-10
26 分钟This is The Guardian.
Today, why are the rat catchers of Birmingham so busy?
I'm in Balsall Heath, which is an area just south of Birmingham City Centre,
and right in front of me is just a huge, huge heap of overstuffed, spilling out black bin bags.
I can see kettles, I can see tables, I can see food discarded, a load of potatoes down there.
Yeah, the smell of this is putrid.
I was in Birmingham this week, not just to hang around the rubbish, but to meet a man called William Timms.
Yeah, my name's William James Timms, and I'm the owner of WJ Pest Solutions.
He's a pest controller, and he's passionate about it.
He says it's much nicer than his last job as a bouncer.
I had my ribs broke, jaw cracked, and everything,
and others thought I'd control something a little bit more safer, and I would need to pest control.
Yeah.
When I asked him what the best part of his job was, he said,
the variety of pests that are out there at the moment is just fantastic.
He deals with all kinds of pests, from cockroaches to wasps to bed bugs,
but lately he's been getting calls about one pest in particular, rats.
It's been absolutely unbelievable.
Since March, my calls have gone up 50%.
Usually I'm dealing with about three or four rodent jobs a day this time of year,