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Environment ·New York City


NYC’S RAT PROBLEM IS SO BAD IT’S HOLDING A SUMMIT OF VERMIN EXPERTS TO ‘KNOW OUR
ENEMY’

BYSydney Lake
May 17, 2024 at 10:11 AM HST
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New York City has a trash—and rat—problem.
Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress

New York City is famous for its sights—not least its giant piles of trash bags.
And those have made the city so ripe for rat infestation that Mayor Eric Adams
is calling a national summit to tackle the problem. This is the mayor who
already moved to reform trash collection (what he called a “24-hour rat buffet)
and created a position in his administration for a “Rat Czar.”



“New Yorkers may not know this about me—but I hate rats, and I’m confident most
of our city’s residents do as well,” Adams said in a statement released
Wednesday. “The best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy.”



That’s why Adams’ administration is hosting this inaugural summit on September
18 and 19 in partnership with New York City Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene and the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell
University.

The event promises to bring together experts and leaders from across the country
to “better understand urban rats and how to manage their populations,” according
to the statement. Experts will include academic researchers, pest control
managers, and municipal experts and participants from Boston, New Orleans, and
Seattle. “Preeminent rat researchers” will be invited, as well. 


HOW BAD IS THE RAT PROBLEM IN NEW YORK CITY?

The rat problem in New York City goes way back—probably further than you’d
think. The infestation started developing in the 18th century when Norwegian
rats (also known as the brown rat, alley rat, or sewer rat) arrived from Europe,
Nicole Carpenter, president of Black Pest Prevention, tells Fortune. 



“These days, New York is still trying to solve this problem as rats pose a huge
threat to public health and sanitation,” Carpenter says. Indeed, a 2023 estimate
from Long Island-based pest control company MMPC says there are as many as 3
million rats living in New York City. That’s 1 million more than were estimated
in 2010, previous research showed.

However, Adams said in his Wednesday announcement that rat sightings were down
nearly 14% year-over-year in the city’s rat mitigation zones. 



“We continue to make progress, but we’re not stopping there,” Adams said. 


WHY DID THE RAT PROBLEM GET SO BAD IN NEW YORK CITY?

The major culprit for the large rat population in New York City is poor garbage
management—largely due to the city’s high population that generates a massive
amount of waste, Carpenter says. 

“Everyone who has ever been to New York knows about its vibrant atmosphere. But
besides Time Square, Central Park, and Statue of Liberty, New York is famous for
its abundant garbage on the streets,” Carpenter says. “This waste, often left in
plastic bags on the streets, provides ample food sources for rats, leading to
their rapid proliferation.”

New York City officials have started mitigating this problem when they began the
“Herculean task of getting all 44 million daily pounds of rat-attracting trash
off the streets,” Jessica Tisch, NYC Department of Sanitation commissioner, said
in a statement.

“New York City is taking the fight to the rats,” Tisch said. “The Urban Rat
Summit is an opportunity to share best practices as the ‘trash revolution’
marches forward.”


HOW NYC STARTED MITIGATING THE RAT PROBLEM

In April 2023, Adams appointed Kathleen Corradi as the city’s inaugural “rat
czar” to mitigate the vast rodent population in the city. 



“The rats are going to hate Kathy, but we’re excited to have her leading this
important effort,” Adams said in a statement. Corradi works across the city’s
five boroughs, finding ways to limit rats’ food sources as well as test and
implement systems to “detect and exterminate” rat populations. 

Adams and Tisch in February also unveiled two new methods for improved waste
management in the city, including automated, side-loading garbage trucks the
administration calls a “superweapon against trash” and an improved
containerization strategy that better determines the type and size of containers
needed for different types of buildings in the city.

Aside from better trash management, the city is also weighing sterilization of
rats. In April, City Councilmember Shaun Abreau introduced legislation that
advocates for rat contraception instead of poison to control the city’s rat
population. This is to prevent unintended consequences of rat poison killing NYC
pets, like the Rottweiler puppy who died after eating rat poison while on a walk
in Washington Heights in late 2022.

“We can’t poison our way out of this,” Abreau told local newspaper The City. “We
cannot kill our way out of this.”

Carpenter agrees that the city will need to think beyond waste management to
remedy the rat problem.

“Getting rid of rats in the city implies other measures such as the use of
rodenticides and traps,” she says. “Work on the rat problem should be done on
both levels: by the government and homeowners themselves. Only a comprehensive
approach can bring good long-term results.”

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