The rats are ginormous, as large as canine: Birmingham rat catcher says rodents rising fats on discarded kebabs are destroying automobiles and popping up in folks’s houses as metropolis’s bin strike deepens

Birmingham is currently in the grip of an escalating crisis, as uncollected rubbish continues to pile up on the city’s streets, leaving locals living in a smelly, rat-infested nightmare. 

With more than 17,000 tonnes of waste littering the roads, an all-out strike by refuse workers has turned parts of the city into a wasteland, and with summer approaching, the situation is showing no signs of improving.

Nearly 400 refuse workers, employed by Birmingham City Council, walked out indefinitely on 11 March, protesting against pay and conditions. 

The walkout has left the streets of the UK’s second-largest city covered in waste, attracting vermin, particularly rats, which have thrived in the filth. 

While council workers and emergency services scramble to manage the situation, one man is at the heart of the city’s battle against an infestation of rats that’s spiraled out of control. 

Will Timms, affectionately known as Birmingham’s ‘rat man,’ has seen it all. As the owner of WJ Pest Solutions, Timms is often called out to help with infestations exacerbated by the mounting piles of rubbish. 

His phone has been ringing off the hook, and his workload has doubled since the bin strike began, he confesses he’s ‘absolutely shattered’ after working non-stop for two and a half months.

Will Timms, affectionately known as Birmingham’s ‘rat man,’ has seen it all

Timms, who typically manages one or two callouts a day, now handles as many as four or five, often covering up to 170 miles a day across Birmingham

‘There’s a real sense of disbelief about the scale of what’s happening here. I’ve been doing this for 11 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,’ he told the i Paper.

‘The rats are not only getting bigger, but they’re also getting bolder, venturing into people’s homes and even destroying cars.’ 

Timms, who typically manages one or two callouts a day, now handles as many as four or five, often covering up to 170 miles a day across Birmingham. 

The conditions he’s working in are harrowing: overflowing waste, foul smells, and a rising number of rodents that have been feasting on discarded food. 

‘The smell is vile – I was on a rat job this morning, and as soon as I got out of the van, I was heaving,’ he says. 

‘You’ve got dirty nappies all over the floor, incontinence pads. You can smell the [rat] urine in the air as well; it’s like a strong ammonia. I was thinking, ‘How the hell can you live like this round here?’ It’s diabolical.’ 

Rats are becoming ginormous, feeding off the wealth of discarded food on the streets. In fact, Timms reports that rats are now as big as small dogs, some growing to lengths of 22 inches. 

Earlier this month the people of Birmingham said their council were to blame for a swelling army of enormous rats fattening themselves on a growing pile of leftover refuse.

Residents of the Midlands city said ongoing bin strikes, an increase in fly-tipping and HS2 building work has sparked an invasion of pesky rats and mice, as they continue to find rodents tucked behind wheelie bins and nestling under car bonnets.

One local said they can’t go a day without seeing a rat and blasted the problem as being a ’embarrassing situation for a major city’. 

Earlier this month the people of Birmingham said their council were to blame for a swelling army of enormous rats fattening themselves on a growing pile of leftover refuse

The Unite union has warned bin disruption in the city could stretch into the summer after refuse workers voted in favour of extending their strike mandate over the council’s use of temporary labour to ‘undermine’ their industrial action. Pictured: Court Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, February 6

Unite said its members face pay cuts after the scrapping of waste collection and recycling officer roles, despite already voluntarily accepting cuts to pay and terms and conditions after the council declared bankruptcy. Pictured: Drews Lane in Washwood Heath, Birmingham on February 26

It comes after earlier this month the people of Birmingham said their cash-strapped Labour-run council were to blame for a swelling army of enormous rats fattening themselves on a growing pile of leftover refuse. Pictured: Rats on the streets of Birmingham earlier this month 

Residents of the Midlands city said ongoing bin strikes, an increase in fly-tipping and HS2 building work has sparked an invasion of pesky rats and mice, as they continue to find rodents tucked behind wheelie bins and nestling under car bonnets

Rats plaguing the city have been described by locals as being the size of ‘small cats’ and claim that their homes are being overran by the vermin

Posting to X, one resident claimed his bins hadn’t been emptied for 17 days and said he fears there is a ‘public health crisis looming’.

Craig Cooper, strategic director of city operations at Birmingham City Council, told BBC Radio West Midlands that 90 waste collection crews are still out collecting bins, out of a total of 200.

He said residents should still put their bins out and crews would get to them when they could.

He said: ‘We have been stopped getting out of depots by disruption which is why the police are there and I’m really grateful to West Midlands Police for the work they have done to allow our staff to go about their work normally as they are entitled to do, but our aim is to collect as much as we possibly can.

‘Put your residual waste out in the wheelie bins, and it may not be collected on the day because we’re being prevented from getting out the depots, but when we can, we will get there and get it cleared. We are working round the clock to get there.

‘Some residents have been taking them to the tip, we do have some mobile household locations that have been set up and are continuing to be set up.

‘We will monitor it as we go, but put your waste out and we will get to it.’