A housebound NR3 pensioner is at her wit's end with rats running around under her home and lives in fear that she will wake to find them in her kitchen cupboards.
Rats made it into Sandra Colley’s home in Magdalen Road more than a year ago when they were able to break in via a hole near her front door.
Since then the opening has gotten bigger and the rats have been able to create a thriving nest under her stairs, but they were removed by a council exterminator.
This wasn’t the end of the problems though, as the rats continue to flourish underneath her floorboards.
The 71-year-old said: “It is horrible knowing there are rats under my home, I do not hear them, but my next-door neighbours have told me they can hear scratching sometimes under their living room floor.
“I do worry they will get into my home; I have two cats but when the rats were under the stairs they just sat at the door and listened.”
But Sandra has seen how many problems rats can cause.
She said: “My daughter used to live on Spencer Street and rats died under her floorboards which caused an awful smell when they decomposed.
“It got worse when flies got to the rotting corpses and laid eggs – she had maggots coming up through her floorboards, it was like something out of a horror movie.”
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And now she is worried that she will see the same scenes in her own home.
“I am unable to get around, so if this happened to me I would have to wait for my cleaners who only come every two weeks,” Sandra said.
She is very concerned that the rats will get the edge and break into her home, bringing disease.
But Sandra needs someone who is able to get to the rats for an affordable rate without causing too much disruption in her home as she is not able to leave.
She hopes someone who can do the job effectively can be found in Norwich before it is too late and the rats once again break into her home.
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