How Clean Is Your House Season 5 Episode 3

This was a special episode, so this section is basically a summation of the show. If you are at all squeamish about seeing mice and rats, dead or alive.. be forewarned about this particular episode. :-)

Various residents of the area were asked about the rat problem. It is everyone's problem. One man said, "You can have a rat in the most pleasant of houses." The rat population is estimated to be around 64 million in Britain. The consensus is this is due to the milder winters and increased protein in their diet.

Kim and Aggie were looking around a house in one kitchen Kim warned, "Watch what you do because mice do gather in breadboxes." Aggie opened the box and both girls screamed! Another time, looking at a rat from afar, Aggie said, "It's the tails that freak me out."

The girls met a pest controller that took them to a derelict building. He said rubbish laid out in bags do not help the problem. Manholes should have proper fitting covers. It's the law to report rats on your land.

The rats are such a problem and can be found anywhere, they showed a picture of a loaf of bread from a local bakery that had a dead rat in the middle of it.

Aside from poison, 2 traps were shown. The first was the usual snap trap for under 5 pounds, and the second was an electrocution trap that cost close to 30 pounds.

The girls went to a school and demonstrated to the children how rats can carry bacteria on their feet into their homes. They laid down a map and used a tame rat with fluorescent dust on its feet. The coaxed the rat to the different areas on the map and then used a UV light to show his foot prints. The girls advise the children to be very clean and tidy, never to leave food out.

Kim and Aggie started an advertising campaign towing an advertisement around London. They spoke with people as they handed out leaflets on the street with their campaign logo "Kim and Aggie says clean up your act don't be a rats best friend." The girls visited several homes and showed the owners how to rat proof a house by putting tight draft strips on the bottom of the door so that mice or rats would not crawl underneath. They showed an old gentleman how to put mesh grating over drains and showed two women to remove an old pipe that rats can use to climb. They advised to pick up fallen bird feeders and bird food that had fallen during the day. They also advised putting a cooked chicken carcass into a bag and freezing it until bin collection day to avoid attracting rats. (LensMaster note: I have done this here in the states!)

There has been a 33% increase in rubbish in the last 20 years in the UK, and they throw away 30 million tons of it a year. 34% of the rat problem is due to bird feeders. Keep them up high and clean up under them every night.

Kim's concluding words were, "We came, we saw, we conquered." Aggie adds, "Well, I think we got a few rats on the run anyway."

This lens is created purely for entertainment. If you choose to try any of the cleaning methods mentioned on the show by the lensmaster or by guests, you are on your own. Follow the product manufacturers' directions explicitly. Always use safe products and never ever anything that carries a warning on the MSDS. Wear masks, gloves, full body suits, armor, spacesuits, whatever ya got!