City rats, country rats…. Do you have a phobia of rats? You are not alone.
This fear has a name: musophobia. and it is far from being irrational. Because rats, like mice, are generally associated with deplorable hygienic conditions and can above all be carriers of many serious diseases, such as plague, typhus, Lyme disease or salmonellosis, noted the IEP site from Grenoble.
“They will also be able to transmit fever via their bite. In addition, these rodents are known to carry fleas, lice and mites”, specifies the article.
But in many cities around the world, their proliferation seems unstoppable. The situation is worrying, to the point of becoming a public health issue. In a recent report, the Academy of Medicine thus recommends “a rigorous and sustainable urban cleanliness plan to eliminate food waste accessible to rodents” in the cities of France.
In the metro, parks, and even in the heart of homes, rats are everywhere. They are so numerous that, in some regions, their population greatly exceeds the number of inhabitants. In our slideshow, discover the 9 French cities that are home to more rats than humans.
In 2019, the Topito site produced a chilling “world ranking”: that of the 10 cities where there are the most rats around the globe. Two French cities are part of the following winners:
