She might be a pensioner but that hasn't stopped this 80-year-old woman from tackling a rat problem in her neighbourhood.
Bobbie Dixon, from Hull, claims to have killed seven of the vermin since the beginning of summer by using traps and poison.
The widow told Hull Live the rats run around the gardens at the back of the houses and she has stepped in multiple times to remove rats other residents are scared to touch.
She said: “I’ll be sitting outside and rats will just run across the garden – it’s unnerving for people.
“There was one dead on the grass yesterday and everyone else is scared of them so I just picked it up. I’m sure it’s not just here. I bet the whole country is bloody covered with them but it is a problem."
At first Ms Dixon caught the rats in traps but she said she was told to stop putting them out by Environmental Health after residents complained about the vermin.
She said: “I caught the first four in traps that I laid down. But I was told by Environmental Health that I shouldn’t be using traps and I should put poison down instead.
“They said other animals could get caught in the traps. I only ever put them in safe places but I started putting poison down instead.”
She has since caught another three rats with the poison she buys from the shops but she said the root of the problem is the overflowing bins near her home.
"They’re just overflowing with food," she said.
“It’s a disgrace. You end up standing in it walking past. People in wheelchairs are having to go over that and little bains in prams, and it’s just not right.
“It’s not the residents’ fault, the landlords haven’t given them big enough bins so there is just food everywhere rats can get at.”
She explained that she has no fear of rats after dealing with them in the past and has vowed to continue tackling the problem herself.
“When I was younger I lived on Hessle Road , we were alive with rats then. We used to have to board the doors with tin to stop them getting in.
"We used to have a lot of fun dealing with them in them days."
