This week, a big brown rat was spotted on the lawn outside the President’s home. It was believed to have been ‘flushed out’ of its burrow by heavy rain.

Journalists working at the White House tweeted about the sighting, with Fox News reporter John Roberts saying he noticed ‘in my peripheral vision something moving at my left foot’. He said: ‘I assumed it was one of the ubiquitous WH squirrels. But no… it was a big brown rat.’ CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said she could ‘attest’ to the rats claim. Department of Health manager Gerard Brown told the Washington Post: ‘Water doesn’t kill them or reduce them at all – rats can swim for as long as a week – but what it does do is make it difficult for them to find food.


He also explained how easily and quickly the rat population can surge, with one mature female Norway rat giving birth to a litter of 10 infants every month. Experts believe the problem is spiralling out of control because of the weather and the rising human population – which has surpassed 700,000 in Washington DC. Mild winters have given the rats a boom in food supplies and a lack of extended periods of cold weather means the rats are breeding more than ever.