Trash, Closed Restaurants Make New York 3rd Rattiest City In U.S.

NEW YORK CITY – The rats aren't social distancing. Despite a dip in complaints of rodent infestations when the city first hunkered down for the coronavirus, the vermin are back – with only Los Angeles and Chicago having bigger infestations than NYC.

As trash piled up across the city amid a coronavirus-related budget cut and a 45 percent reduction in seasonal staff, the rats began to feast.

Complaints about trash doubled this summer and reports of rodent infestations also soared. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 23 this year, 2,527 complaints about rodents were made to the city's 311 hotline. That number includes mice.

In April this year, the number was just 1,575.

"Now, this is like rat city because of too much garbage in the street," Congressman Adriano Espaillat said recently.

The numbers make New York the third rattiest city in the nation, according to a survey carried out by the pest control company Orkin.

They said the coronavirus pandemic's forced closure of restaurants didn't help.

“Pandemic-driven restaurant closures forced rodents to find new food sources, thus increasing their visibility throughout the country,” said Ben Hottel of Orkin.

“Without restaurant waste to dine on, they started scavenging new areas, often into residential communities that were still producing food waste."

Orkin's survey was based on the number of new residential and commercial rodent treatments performed from Sept. 1, 2019, to Aug. 31, 2020.

The top five “rattiest cities” — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco — remained ranked the same since the same study the company published in 2019.

Hottel said rodents are “experts” at sniffing out food and shelter, “and they’re resilient in their ways to obtain both.”

“Residential properties offer the ideal habitat for rodents, and once they’ve settled in, they’re capable of reproducing rapidly and in large quantities," he said.

Orkin has shared these five tips on how best to keep rats and mice out of the home.

• Do not leave out food. Small crumbs and garbage are popular food sources, as are dry goods such as grains and cereals. These should be kept in sealed metal or glass containers to prevent contamination.
• Avoid cluttered spaces. Cardboard objects prove attractive to rodents, which tend to chew them up for use in nests. Take advantage of your extra time at home to clean and organize crowded spaces around the house.
• Do not let the landscaping run wild. Tall grass with adequate harborages, such as wood piles next to the house, can be ideal habitats for rodents. Tree branches in contact with homes can also offer rodents easy access to the upper levels of your home where they may find a way into the attic.
• Inspect both inside and outside your home for rodent droppings, burrows and rub marks along baseboards and walls. The more quickly rodents are detected, the better.
• Look for possible entry points outside your home and seal cracks and holes if any are found. Install weather strips around entryways, especially under doors, to help block rodents from sneaking inside.