Rats in New York City

A rat in the New York City Subway

Rats in New York City are prevalent as in many densely populated areas; politicians and health authorities actively pursue policies and programs to manage the rat population in New York City. The exact number of rats is unknown, but it is estimated that there are at least as many rats as people. The city's rat population is dominated by the brown rat, also referred to as the Norway rat.[1][2]

New York City rats carry pathogens that can cause serious illness, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever in humans, especially in children, with symptoms that can range from mild to severe. The pathogens that they carry include bacteria that cause food poisoning (e.g., Salmonella and a strain of E. coli that causes terrible diarrhea) and dermatitis, pathogens that cause fevers (such as Leptospira), viruses from groups that contain important human pathogens including E. coli, serious and sometimes fatal rat-bite fever, Clostridium difficile (C. diff), sapoviruses, cardioviruses, kobuviruses, parechoviruses, rotaviruses, hepaciviruses, bubonic plague, typhus, spotted fever, Bartonella pathogens (which can cause a wide range of clinical syndromes in humans, some severe, including cat scratch disease, trench fever, and Carron disease), and Seoul hantavirus (which can cause hemorrhagic fever). These bacteria typically spread when rats leave behind saliva, urine, or feces that humans or their pets come into contact with. In addition, the rats carry fleas (including Oriental rat fleas), lice, and mites that can carry bacteria that can cause serious diseases in humans. In addition to disease risks, higher risk of allergies and asthma is linked to exposure to rodent hair, droppings, and urine, especially in children.

New York City rodent complaints can be made online,[3] or by dialing 311, and the New York City guide Preventing Rats on Your Property discusses how the New York City Health Department inspects private and public properties for rats.[4] Property owners that fail inspections receive a Commissioner's Order and have five days to correct the problem. If after five days the property fails a second inspection, the owner receives a Notice of Violation and possibly fines. If the Health Department feels it must itself exterminate or clean up the property, the property owner is billed.

Description

The average brown rat grows to be 16 inches (410 mm) long and weigh 1 pound (0.45 kg), though some have been known to grow to be 20 inches (510 mm) long and weigh 2 pounds (0.91 kg).[2] The "brown rat" is gray or brown in color, with a lighter-colored belly.[2] It is nocturnal, and sleeps approximately 10 hours a day.[5][2] The rat can squeeze through holes or gaps the size of a quarter (0.955 in (24.26 mm)), because unlike many mammals its skull is not plated together so it can change the shape of its head and squeeze through a very small opening.[6][7][8] They are able to leap four feet sideways, can drop down five stories without getting injured, and an adult rat can tread water for three days.[9][10] The rats are able to chew through pipe and cinder block.[9] Each litter has up to a dozen pups, and newborn rats can mate at the age of two or three months and then produce a new litter every two months.[9][6] The rats live about a year.[9] The rats travel tight, well-worn paths.[5]

The television channel Animal Planet in 2014 named New York City the "Worst Rat City in the World," and that year Bobby Corrigan, one of the US's best known rodentologists, called New York City the "USA’s No. 1 Pestropolis."[10] Studies indicate that within the United States, the city is particularly well-suited for rats, taking into account such variables as (human) population patterns, public sanitation practices, climate, housing construction standards, etc. However, experts consider that the actual population varies, depending on climate, sanitation practices, efforts to control the population, and season.[11][12]

Species

Rarely seen in daylight, rats have been reported in New York City since early colonial days. As recently as 1944, two distinct species were prevalent: the brown rat (Norway rat), and the ship rat (black rat, roof rat). Over the next few decades, the more aggressive brown variety displaced the black rats, typically by attacking and killing them, but also by outcompeting them for food and shelter because of their larger size.[11]

Population

A rat in a flower box

Rats are elusive by nature, and public health officials have not developed any reliable way to estimate the prevalence of rats in the city. An often-repeated statistic is that there are more rats than people in the five boroughs of New York City (8.4 million), with some estimates putting the number of rats far higher at as many as four rats per person (32 million).[11] A 2014 study by Jonathan Auerbach, reported in the Royal Statistical Society's Significance magazine, estimated that there were closer to 2 million rats in the city.[13]

Food and shelter

Rats only require an ounce (28 grams) of food and water a day to live.[8] Rats primarily find food and shelter at human places and therefore interact with humans in various ways. More often than not, rats are found in corner stores in New York. In particular, the city's rats adapt to practices and habits among New Yorkers for disposing of food waste. Curbside overnight disposal from residences, stores, subway and restaurants, as well as littering, contribute to the sustenance of the city's rats.[14] Rats almost all the time travel the same routes to their food sources.[5] Rats have shown the ability to adapt to efforts to control them, and rat infestations have increased as a result of budget reductions, more wasteful disposal of food, etc.

For shelter, rats may burrow, nest, and hide in soft dirt, such as in the ground beneath trees in New York City.[15] Brown rats prefer to live at ground level or below.[10] As many as 9 of them live together in a burrow, and all told they live in families or colonies of 30 to 50 rats.[15][16][5] Rats live 100 feet (30 m) to 400 feet (120 m) from their food source, and during their one-year life span they rarely travel more than 600 feet (180 m) from where they were born.[8]

Disease, allergies, asthma, and damage

The greatest danger to humans is from the diseases rats can transmit.[9] City-dwelling rats carry pathogens that can cause diarrhea and vomiting in humans.[17] Symptoms can range from mild to severe, especially if the rats are carrying E. coli, Clostridium difficile (C. diff), or Salmonella.[17] Serious and sometimes fatal rat-bite fever, and Seoul hantavirus — which can cause hemorrhagic fever — are also carried by rats.[17] These bacteria typically spread when rats leave behind saliva, urine, or feces that humans or their pets come into contact with.[17]

A survey conducted by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in 2014 recorded the DNA of 133 Norway rats trapped throughout Manhattan, focusing on those in residential buildings.[17] The results showed the rats carried numerous pathogens that can cause serious illness in humans, including bacteria that caused food poisoning (e.g., Salmonella and a strain of E. coli that causes terrible diarrhea) and dermatitis, pathogens that cause fevers (such as Seoul hantavirus and Leptospira), viruses from groups that contain important human pathogens including sapoviruses, cardioviruses, kobuviruses, parechoviruses, rotaviruses, and hepaciviruses, and also including some never before seen in New York and some completely unknown to science.[18][17][19][20] While at least 18 of the viruses found are known to cause diseases in humans, it is unclear how infectious the rats are to residents.[19] Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit scientific organization that researches links between human health and wildlife, called the study "shocking and surprising", and, in particular, given the close quarters shared by rats and New York City residents, said, "This is a recipe for a public health nightmare."[19]

A 2015 joint study by Columbia University and Cornell University found that diseases including the bubonic plague, typhus, spotted fever, Bartonella pathogens (which can cause a wide range of clinical syndromes in humans, some severe, including cat scratch disease, trench fever, and Carron disease), and various viruses are carried by New York City's rats, and that the rats carry fleas (including Oriental rat fleas), lice, and mites that can carry bacteria that can cause serious diseases in humans.[21][22] Fleas pass along disease by regurgitating rats’ infected blood and guts when they bite into human hosts.[21] While a 1925 study found one out of five rats were carrying a flea, the Cornell/Columbia study found an average of four fleas on a rat.[21] These results were confirmed by a study published in 2015 in the Journal of Medical Entomology.[18][23]

The NYC Health Department recommends that people bitten by a rat seek immediate medical attention, as bacteria from the rat’s teeth can cause tetanus as well as rat bite fever, which can be fatal.[24]

In addition to disease risks, higher risk of allergies and asthma is linked to exposure to rodent hair, droppings, and urine, especially in children.[21]

In 2014, New York City Councilman Mark D. Levine said at a public hearing that "We've had rats who are going into cars and eating out electrical cables. We have rats that are entering homes."[25] He described the problem as "epidemic" on some streets in Manhattan.[25]

Notable incidents

The problem of rats in New York City is a long-standing one. In 1860, The New York Times reported on a newborn infant being mutilated by rats at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, the nose of the child, upper lip, a portion of its cheeks, the toes of its left foot, and a portion of its foot having been apparently eaten off.[26] In 1921, the NYC Health Department engaged in an anti-rat campaign that required rat-infested areas in the city be rat-proofed, and the rats to be poisoned with barium carbonate mixed with flour, fumigated with cyanide gas, or trapped.[27]

Rats in New York have been known to overrun restaurants after hours, crawl up sewer pipes and enter apartments through toilets. They have also attacked homeless people, eaten cadavers in the city morgue, and bitten infants and young children to get food off their faces.[11][2]

In 2003, a fire station in Queens was condemned and demolished after rats had taken over the building. In 2007, a morning news program featured a live report of a pack of rats overrunning a pair of fast food restaurants in Greenwich Village.[28][29][30] In 2010, there were 86 instances reported in which rodents bit New Yorkers, according to New York City Health Department statistics, though many bites go unreported.[24] In 2011, a video of a rat climbing on a sleeping man's face as he was on the NYC subway went viral.[31] Babies are most frequently the rat-bite victims, especially if left with food or a bottle.[9]

In 2014, YouTube videos of rats on New York City Subway tracks and in a subway car went viral, as did videos of rats in a Dunkin' Donuts in Manhattan.[32][33][34][35][36] In June 2014, residents at adjacent Upper West Side buildings demanded an end to the rat problem they said had reached epidemic proportions, and started a rent strike.[37] Also in 2014, residents of the Allerton Coops in Bronx Park East said that the landlord and the property management company had failed to address an ongoing severe rat infestation, despite three Notices of Violation from the Health Department, as well as attendant fines.[38][39][40]

An online map created by the New York City Department of Health enables people to search specific addresses for rat issues.[25] The Village Voice asked readers to email them about incidents of rat sightings.[41]

Control

The New York City Department of Health handles enforcement of rat infestation problems in New York City.[42] Local authorities in New York have long recognized that eliminating rats from the city is unrealistic, but have made various efforts to control their prevalence. The approach has traditionally been reactive: after receiving complaints of infestation, and noting signs of infestation such as burrows, droppings, claw marks, and gnawed holes, officials would target control efforts at that local site by placing rodent poison, traps, or contraceptives.[43][44][45]

In recent years, the city adopted a more proactive and strategic approach to rodent control known as integrated pest management, by focusing on preventive measures. Such efforts include developing a rodent control map using geotagging to focus countermeasures more systematically; instituting a "Rodent Control Academy" that trains city employees on rat behavior and control; emphasizing building integrity and garbage disposal, etc.[46][47][48] In 2009, the Health Department began a Rat Academy open to members of the public, that offered a half-day course describing how to identify rat infestations and what to do about them.[8][49] In 2010, the city cut its budget for rodent control programs by $1.5 million to help reduce an overall deficit of $2 billion.[50]

In 2013, it was announced that New York municipal authorities would implement a plan for mass sterilization of the city's rats, using a chemical to neutralize the reproductive systems of female rats. Bait stations loaded with the chemical were to be deployed. The chemical's effects were to gradually shrink the number of pups a female rat can have in a litter, eventually rendering them infertile.[51] Out of all neighborhoods in the city, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side logged the most rat complaints to the Health Department from 2010 to mid-2014.[52][53] In 2014 the mayor approved a "Rat Squad", with $611,000 in funding, to target rat infestations in Manhattan and the South Bronx, and the Health Department hired 9 new inspectors to augment the 45 inspectors they already had.[54][45] In 2014, Caroline Bragdon, a research scientist in the Department of Health, was known as the "rat czar" for her expertise on rat infestation problem.[8]

Tips

New York City property owners and managing agents are legally responsible for maintaining a rat-free environment.[55][56] The New York City Health Code requires property owners to: clean their properties, eliminate conditions that lead to rats, and when appropriate to hire a pest management professional.[55][56] Conditions both in and outside of buildings, including on public property, that contribute to or allow the establishment of rat populations constitute violations of Article 151 of the Health Code.[55][56] These include accumulation of garbage, waste material, water, conditions in which rats may find shelter or hide, and garbage that is not maintained in tightly covered rat-resistant trash cans.[55][56] To address a rat infestation, property owners should use metal trash cans with tight-fitting lids and put garbage out close to the actual pickup time.[8]

New York City publishes a guide for property owners and tenants, entitled Preventing Rats on Your Property: A Guide for Property Owners and Tenants, that discusses how the Health Department inspects for rats, and how to control rats, including looking for evidence, cleaning up, starving them, shutting them out, and wiping them out.[4] In addition to traps, rat poison, mesh wiring at the base of trees along the sidewalk, new rules for garbage pickup are applied to address rat infestations, with landlords bringing out their garbage in the morning immediately prior to pickup rather than the night before.[54] Rodent baiting is suggested as an effective approach to wiping out rats.[4]

New York City property owners and residents were advised to keep a keen eye out for signs of infestation like gnawed wood and plastic—rats chew to cut their teeth—and grease and dropping trails. As well as to inspect for places of entry like gaps around pipes.[57]

Government complaints and inspections

New York City rodent complaints can be made online,[3] by filling out the New York City Rodent Complaint Form, or by dialing 311.[58]

The New York City guide Preventing Rats on Your Property discusses how the NYC Health Department, through its Pest Control Services program, inspects private and public properties for rats.[4][55] Property owners that fail their inspection receive a Health Department Commissioner's Order and have five days to correct the problem.[4][55] If after five days the property fails a second inspection, the owner receives a Notice of Violation and possibly fines.[4] If the Health Department feels it must itself exterminate or clean up the property, the property owner is billed.[4]

Bragdon at the Department of Health said: "The inspection is only as good as the inspector on that day and time. If you feel we’re really missing the boat, which sometimes we do, let your community board and elected officials know.[8]

In 2014, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer criticized the health department as “weak” in investigating and fixing residents’ rat complaints.[17] From fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2013, pest complaints, including rat problems, increased 10 percent in the city, and 24 percent of the time health department workers failed to inspect the complaints in the 10-day target period, an audit by the comptroller found.[17] In 160 cases, the health department failed to carry out any field inspection.[17]

In popular culture

The 2002 horror film The Rats, concerning killer rats, takes place in Manhattan.[59][60] Also, Rats!: A short story (2014), is based in New York City.[61]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Caroline Winter (October 30, 2012). "NYC Rats: Stronger Than Sandy". Business Week. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Robert Sullivan (2008). Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 1596919175.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Rodent Complaint Form". nyc.gov.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. "Preventing Rats on Your Property: A Guide for Property Owners and Tenants", nyc.gov
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ryan Bradley (April 23, 2015). "The Rat Paths of New York; How the city’s animals get where they’re going." The New York Times Magazine
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 N.R. Kleinfield (July 12, 2000). "Rats Love New York; That Doesn't Make Them Welcome", The New York Times
  7. ↑ "Rats! New York City Tries To Drain Rodent 'Reservoirs'". NPR. August 29, 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Emily Frost (August 1, 2014). "How To Fight a Rat Infestation on Your Block". DNAinfo New York.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Barry Bearak. "New York Losing the Rat Race: East Side, West Side, vermin are all around the town. But budget cuts and a trash incinerator ban have made this an especially miserable summer for weary residents and wary exterminators.". Los Angeles Times.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sarah Matheson (September 1, 2014). "The Relentless Rats of New York City". The Epoch Times.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Wilsey, Sean (May 17, 2005). "Some of them can read". London Review of Books. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  12. ↑ Chan, Sewell (October 4, 2007). "New York Tops a List for Rat Risk Factors". New York Times (New York). Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  13. ↑ Netburn, Deborah (November 3, 2014). "Eight million rats in New York? Not even close, a new study says". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  14. ↑ Marshall, Lauren (November 13, 2000). "Columbia Hosts First Rat Summit; Experts Seek to Control City’s Rodent Population". Columbia University Record (New York: Columbia University).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Mac King (August 12, 2013). "Manhattan rat 'patrol'". Fox 5 News.
  16. ↑ Amy Zimmer. "How to Prevent and Fight Rodent Infestations". DNAinfo New York.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 17.8 Samantha Tata (October 15, 2014). "NYC’s rats are crawling with diseases: study". New York's PIX11-TV.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Peyton Guyion (March 3, 2015). "Bubonic plague-carrying fleas found on New York City rats". The Independent.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Zimmer, Carl (October 14, 2014). "Rats and Their Alarming Bugs". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
  20. ↑ Lindsay Deutsch (October 15, 2014). "Researchers uncover the disgusting truth about NYC rats". USA Today.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Meredith Engel, Kerry Burke, Dareh Gregorian (March 3, 2015). "Oh rats! Study finds New York City rodents found with fleas that could carry bubonic plague, other more dangerous viruses", New York Daily News
  22. ↑ "New York City rats, fleas could carry bubonic plague". CBS News. March 3, 2015.
  23. ↑ M. J. Frye, C. Firth, M. Bhat, M. A. Firth, X. Che, D. Lee, S. H. Williams, W. I. Lipkin (March 2, 2015). "Preliminary Survey of Ectoparasites and Associated Pathogens from Norway Rats in New York City". Journal of Medical Entomology. oxfordjournals.org.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Alison Bowen (December 26, 2014). "100 New Yorkers bitten by rats each year". Metro.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Tina Susman (May 30, 2014). "New York City declares war on rats". Los Angeles Times.
  26. ↑ "Rats at Bellevue Hospital.; The Case of the New-born Child Gnawed by Vermin – Investigation by the Commissioners of Public Charities—How the Hospital is Overrun.", The New York Times, April 27, 1860
  27. ↑ "Quarterly Bulletin (New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Health). 1921–22".
  28. ↑ Chan, Sewell (December 5, 2006). "In Epic Battle, the Rat Patrol Adjusts Its Aim and Digs In". New York: New York Times.
  29. ↑ Cilgann, Corey (August 7, 2003). "A Detested Emblem of Decay Is Scurrying Back. Ah, Rats!". New York: New York Times (Metro).
  30. ↑ Sikuver, Caleb (February 23, 2007). "Taco Bell Rats are Stars for a Day". CNN.
  31. ↑ Josh Sanburn. "Shocking NYC Subway Rat Video: Some Say It’s Staged, But New Yorkers Know Better". TIME.
  32. ↑ Andrew Ramos. "WATCH: Massive NYC subway rat attacks straphanger". New York's PIX11 / WPIX-TV.
  33. ↑ Christopher Mathias. "This Is What Happens When A Rat Rides The New York City Subway (VIDEO)". The Huffington Post.
  34. ↑ Sarah Boboltz. "Subway Rats Are Actually The Ultimate New Yorkers, So Stop Hating". The Huffington Post.
  35. ↑ Ashley Collman. "Rats feast on croissants and climb up curtains at Manhattan Dunkin' Donuts in video that's enough to turn you off breakfast". Mail Online.
  36. ↑ Michael Walsh, Lee Moran (April 3, 2014). "Rats scurry through food at Dunkin' Donuts in Manhattan (VIDEO)", The New York Daily News
  37. ↑ Jan Ransom (July 1, 2014). "Upper West Siders reaffirm rent strike, protesting rodents, ‘slum’ conditions", The New York Daily News
  38. ↑ Jennifer H. Cunningham (April 15, 2015). "City steps in to save Allerton Coops from rat plague; The Heath Department has launched an aggressive extermination campaign to rid the Allerton Coops of the large rodents menacing residents. Tenants say landlord Chaim Schweid, and property management company Bronx Park East LLC, have failed to tackle the ongoing severe infestation", The New York Daily News
  39. ↑ "Rats plague Allerton Coops; Tenants say they are living in fear of large, aggressive rats terrorizing the complex – and the property managers aren't doing enough to stem the severe infestation", The New York Daily News, April 2, 2014
  40. ↑ "Landmarked Allerton Coops rocked by rampant drug dealing", The New York Daily News, February 12, 2014
  41. ↑ JoAnna Klein (January 23, 2015). "Are New York City's Rats Really Partial to Chinese Food?". Runnin' Scared.
  42. ↑ Sylvia Shapiro (1998). The Co-Op Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Co-ops and Condos; Getting In, Staying In, Surviving, Thriving. Macmillan.
  43. ↑ Christine Gorman (December 15, 2008). "Mapping the Rats of New York city". TIME.
  44. ↑ Segal, David (March 20, 2007). "New York Tackles Its Gnawing Rat Problem". Washington Post.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 "Rodents winning New York rat race, but humans fight back". NY Daily News. June 15, 2014.
  46. ↑ Christine Gorman (December 15, 2008). "Mapping the Rats in New York City". TIME.
  47. ↑ "NYC Rodent Control Academy". New York: City of New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
  48. ↑ "Rat Information Portal". City of New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
  49. ↑ "An Upper West Side Condominium Battles Rat Infestation". Habitat Magazine. December 1, 2014.
  50. ↑ Carvajal, Kathy; Luke Funk (March 31, 2010). "New York City Rat Control Worries". MyFoxNews.
  51. ↑ John Metcalfe (April 1, 2013). "The Surprisingly Gentle Science Behind New York's Plan to Sterilize Its Rats – CityLab". The Atlantic Cities. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  52. ↑ "Aww, rats! Residents near Central Park complain about rodents". New York Post. August 30, 2014.
  53. ↑ "Central Park Rats - Upper West Side Rats". The Real Deal New York. August 31, 2014.
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 "New York City launches new attack on problem of rats". ABC7 New York. May 29, 2014.
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 55.2 55.3 55.4 55.5 "Rat Information Portal". nyc.gov.
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 56.2 56.3 "Article 151: Rodents, Insects, and other Pests", New York City Health Code
  57. ↑ "Rodent Problem: Where to Look For a Mouse in the House or a Rat Infestation". Knockoutpest.com. Knockout Pest Control Inc. 2012. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  58. ↑ "Rats, Mice, and Other Pests". nyc.gov.
  59. ↑ Thomas M. Sipos (2010). Horror Film Aesthetics: Creating the Visual Language of Fear. McFarland.
  60. ↑ "Rats; TV Movie", The New York Times
  61. ↑ Brett James (2014). Rats!: a short story. ISBN 0985086440.

Sources