The bizarre solution to America’s rat plague – and you might not like it
The bizarre solution to America’s rat plague, experts say, could be to learn to live with them in a more harmonious way.
Rodent researchers have said that instead of pouring millions of dollars into a losing battle against the furry animals, cities like New York and Boston should consider cohabiting.
Big Apple officials have gone to great lengths, including creating “rat control zones” where teams of officers patrol, plug entry holes and deploy toxins in pest hotspots like Harlem.
Kaylee Byers, assistant professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University, explained why it’s time for officials to rethink this approach to the pest problem.
“What we’re doing now is clearly not working,” she told the Boston Globe. “Part of that is that our current approach is ‘see a rat, kill a rat.’
The bizarre solution to America’s rat plague, experts say, could be to learn to live with them in a more harmonious way
Rodent researchers have said that instead of pouring millions of dollars into a losing battle against the furry animals, cities like New York and Boston should consider cohabiting.
Byers, who has done extensive research on Vancouver’s rat population, said this method is ineffective because the reproduction rate of rats is so high that as soon as one group is eradicated, another appears.
Marieke Rosenbaum, an assistant professor and research veterinarian at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, added that the health risks associated with rats have been grossly exaggerated.
“They can carry and transmit diseases that we can contract, but the reality is that, at least in most North American cities, [transmission] does not happen with high frequency,” Rosenbaum told the Globe.
However, this does not apply to the homeless population, who are at greater risk of contracting diseases from street pests.
New York City has seen an increase in cases of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread by rats, although at its peak there were still only 24 cases reported over the course of a year.
In 2023, 24 cases were reported in the city, which is eight times higher than the total number of cases in the previous twenty years.
People can become infected with leptospirosis through contact with urine from infected animals, which can carry the disease without experiencing any setbacks.
People contract the disease by handling contaminated waste or by touching the ground where a rat has urinated.
However, Byers said the mental health consequences of dealing with rats in your home are often overlooked.
Rodent researchers have said that instead of pouring millions of dollars into a losing battle against the furry animals, cities like New York and Boston should consider embracing cohabitation.
New York City has hired Pied Piper Kathleen Corradi (pictured right) for $155,000 a year
Adams said $3.5 million would be invested in a ‘rat control zone’ in Harlem to rid the neighborhood of rodents
“They can cause stress and anxiety,” she told the Globe. “People I’ve talked to have talked about helplessness and hopelessness.”
New York City employs Kathleen Corradi, 34, as a rat czar at $155,000 a year.
Corradi said the city would start reducing food waste on the streets, and Adams said a “rat control zone” in Harlem would invest $3.5 million to rid the neighborhood of rodents.
The policy does not appear to have had an immediate effect. A New Yorker recently described seeing “rats the size of alligators running down the street” in Harlem.
In September, a shocked group of New Yorkers were forced to jump over dozens of vermin that crossed their path from garbage bins outside a pizzeria, seen in shocking footage.
But some people in the Big Apple have learned to embrace its furry residents. Guides even offer trips to the city’s most rodent-infested areas.
Some offer walking tours of the boroughs, including to Central Park, the subway system, near Rockefeller Center, Times Square and Chinatown.