Edinburgh’s rat infestation: The city’s 17 council areas ranked in order of pest control callouts

Edinburgh is facing a plague of rats, with ongoing bin collection problems believed to be at the heart of the epidemic.

A freedom of information request has revealed the council’s pest control team was called out 4,788 times last year - the equivalent of 13 times a day - to tackle vermin from rats to cockroaches. And one private pest controller in the city even claims rat callouts have surged by 20 per cent over this period - but the local authority disagrees. Here is a breakdown of the number of pest control requests made to the local authority in 2018 by ward area.