RATS and mice were spotted by York residents who called out the council’s pest controllers at least 14 times a month, figures have revealed.

The rodents were found in buildings across the city, resulting in City of York Council’s pest-control officers being dispatched 394 times between January 2014 and February 2015, at a cost of £23,246, figures obtained by The Press have revealed.

According to the information released under a Freedom of Information request, the callouts came from across York and 44 separate incidents were reported in November alone – 40 of which were to exterminate rats.

The authority’s pest-control service visited 245 buildings and properties in 2014 to deal with problems caused by rats.

This was eight more visits than in 2013 but 48 fewer than in 2012.

Dave Varley, 52, has run private company Pestserve in York for the last eight years and has dealt with rats all over the city.

He said: “Wherever there’s food, you will get rats. They live in gardens, sheds and under decking.

“Even if you have rabbits in your garden and spill some food, rats will pick it up and take it away.

“Nine times out of ten, the calls I get will be from people who have seen them when feeding the birds and they are concerned about the diseases they carry.

“You can throw some bread out for the birds and the next time you look out you see a big brown rat with bread hanging out its mouth.

“There’s a lot of takeaway shops in York and people will eat food then throw it away, which causes a lot of rats to be found, and people feeding birds in their gardens cause problems.”

The council service was also called upon to tackle problems with bees, ants, mice, pigeons and fleas, but wasps alone have caused major concerns with inspectors who made 386 visits to tackle their nests last year.

Thirteen buildings recorded problems with squirrels in 2014.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: “Considering the council area covers 88,000 properties and 105 sq miles, the local authority dealt with a small number of pest-control queries last year.”