Bury received the lowest number of pest control call-outs in Greater Manchester, according to new figures.

Of the county’s 10 authorities analysed by the British Pest Control Association (BPCA), Bury responded to 2,062 incidents in 2011-12.

By contrast, Bolton Council’s pest control team was called out 5,075 times — nearly two and a half times more than in Bury.

Bury’s pest control team dealt with the second lowest number of complaints for cockroaches (eight) and the third lowest number for rats (632), mice (331) and ants (181) in Greater Manchester.

BPCA chief executive, Simon Forrester, said: “There are many localised reasons why an area could have a high prevalence of a certain pest. Local authorities are under immense strain to come up with savings. The BPCA wants to make sure this doesn’t have an impact on public health.

“If an infestation isn’t dealt with quickly and properly, it will spread. Dealing with it then is much more expensive and it carries a greater risk to public health.”

The survey showed that Bury’s pest control team was called out almost 400 fewer times in 2012 than in 2011, when it was called out 2,457 times.

This decrease meant that, in a league table of the UK’s busiest pest control bodies, Bury fell from 88th place to 105th place.

A Bury Council spokesman said: “We are pleased that Bury Council’s pest control service has not had as many call-outs to rat problems as other bor-oughs, as this could signify the effective-ness of our proactive sewer treatment reg-ime. We look at where rat problems are reported and if we get hotspot areas we will carry out rat treatments and monitor the sewers until the problem is under control.

“Our fully trained in-house pest control team carries out treatments for a variety of pests including rats, mice, squirrels, wasps, ants, bed bugs, fleas, cockroaches and pigeons.

“We tackle pests in both domestic and commercial premises and also offer a pest monitoring service.”