My attention was drawn in recent years to the dangers of rats invading dishwashers. This they achieve by chewing through outside waste pipes – which often contain build ups of fat and food scraps after use, due to the failure of users to remove all scraps and fat left on utensils and crockery before putting them in machines.

Build ups encourage rats to chew their way into the dishwashers, necessitating expensive repairs, as well as risking damage to human health – not forgetting the fear and distress of course, when one is confronted with the countenance of a large whiskery rodent, on opening one's dishwasher.

Lomond Handley,
Truro