A Breakdown of NYC's Rat Problem

By: Lilease Waldron

                                               NYC's caution advisory for rodenticide via Lilease Waldron

Encountering rats some say is like a right of passage to live in New York City. The New York Times reported horror stories earlier this year from residents of the city, witnessing rats entering apartments from toilets, prying themselves off industrial glue traps, and fighting other rats to death in the street.

These rodents are seemingly invincible and are burrowing around every corner, leaving New Yorkers questioning what exactly is being done to solve their growing population, and why it’s occurring in the first place.

Pre-Covid-19 pandemic, former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio invested $32 million in a plan to reduce the rat count in the most infested areas of the city. He did so by increasing garbage pickup, providing steel anti-rat garbage bins, and incorporating dry ice as a method of execution.

While these procedures did drop the rat population for some time, it was during and after the Covid-19 pandemic that the amount started to multiply again. A National Institutes of Health-sponsored resource estimated this year that there are as many as 3 million rats prowling the city, an increase of 1 million just over the last decade.

Thus, there must be bigger concerns contributing to the growth. An urban ecologist who’d been studying NYC’s rats for 12 years wrote that food waste, climate change, and the deterioration of the city itself are what’s mainly increasing the number of rats over time.

More food waste means a larger food source for the rats to feed off of. Climate change has resulted in more humidity, which lengthens rat breeding periods, and building corrosion means more spaces for rats to hide and nest in.

To stop rat numbers from rising, New York City council members incorporated carbon monoxide this year into their extermination plans. After noting the success of other major cities doing the same, they followed suit and hired exterminator Matt Deodato.

Deodato and his team release carbon monoxide into rat burrows around the city, which puts them to sleep before eventually suffocating them. This method is environmentally safe for other wildlife, as the gas dissipates quickly and leaves no trace.

Further, current NYC Mayor Eric Adams is pushing for all street garbage to be binned. Deodato noted that proper trash disposal is the only way to truly exterminate the vermin and keep their population count low. While garbage containment is an important step to take, it will take months, if not years, for that to become fully implemented.

Residents of the city should call or text NYC’s 311 service request line and report sightings of rats both in and outdoors. This is the main source of rat data in NYC. If consistently updated, it keeps the population count accurate and helps locate problem areas.

As New Yorkers wait for promised change, they should still keep their eyes pointed down and toilet lids closed. These vermin won’t be curbed anytime soon.