6) New Orleans, America

All big cities have got a rat problem really, and if it’s hot and humid and they get a lot of visitors then it’s all the better for the rat. Since Katrina smashed the place to bits rats have had a field day in New Orleans. They’ve got piles of rubbish, abandoned buildings and less predators. Go rats!

New Orleans makes it onto this list primarily because of this chilling sentence written on a three-year-old’s death certificate in 2009:

exsanguination due to destruction of soft tissue secondary to murine activity

So basically a baby bled out because it was nibbled on so incessantly by rats. She had “hundreds” of bite marks, especially around the nose and arm according to reports.

The family of the deceased knew they had a rat problem because they often heard rats scratching inside the walls, but they’d never actually seen any inside the property. That story is just horrible isn’t it?