{"id":147486,"date":"2026-02-27T16:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147486\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:37:12","slug":"nyc-unleashes-rat-death-squad-to-gas-vermin-with-carbon-monoxide-bury-them-in-tree-pit-graves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147486\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC unleashes rat death squad to gas vermin with carbon monoxide, bury them in tree-pit graves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows Collage of NYC’s war on rats: fumigation, rat, and Mayor Adams speaking<\/p>\n

They\u2019re on a mission to put the city\u2019s vermin problem to bed.<\/p>\n

The Adams administration is unleashing an $877,000 rat death squad to find the rodents, gas them to death with carbon monoxide and bury them in and around the Big Apple\u2019s 600,000 tree beds.<\/p>\n

\"Francis<\/p>\n

Francis Fernandez, an exterminator for NYC Parks (left) and NYC Mayor Eric Adams (center) during a demonstration after the announcement of new rat mitigation team. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The Street Tree Bed Rat Mitigation program will include a specialized team of a dozen exterminators, park workers and others with inspecting tree beds and deploying carbon monoxide inside rat burrows \u2013 where \u201crodent squatters\u201d will meet their ends with their tunnels turned to graves, officials said at a news conference on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy cleaning up trash and hiring a team of experts to clear out burrows while caring for our trees, we are reclaiming public space, fighting rats, and improving quality of life for all New Yorkers,\u201d Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. \u201cOur administration continues to build on the work we are doing to end the dominance of trash and rats on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cBy<\/p>\n

\u201cBy cleaning up trash and hiring a team of experts to clear out burrows while caring for our trees, we are reclaiming public space, fighting rats, and improving quality of life for all New Yorkers,\u201d Mayor Eric Adams said. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The gassing process boasts a 95% kill rate for seven days, takes about three minutes and does not require a license to operate the proper equipment, Adams said.<\/p>\n

Officials said the gas doesn\u2019t pose a risk to humans or non-rats, and the noisy equipment used to deploy the carbon monoxide will be at least 10 feet away from the foundation of nearby buildings.<\/p>\n

\"Officials<\/p>\n

Officials said the gas poses no risk to humans or non-rats, and the noisy equipment used to deploy the carbon monoxide will be at least 10 feet away from the foundation of nearby buildings. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The latest initiative in the war on rats \u2013 followed by the containerization of 70% of the city\u2019s street trash<\/a> and even a rat birth control program<\/a> \u2013 is set to put an end to the \u201chistorically exploited\u201d street tree beds used by vermin as a breeding ground, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a lifelong New Yorker \u2026 my main concern was always the tree beds,\u201d Prospect Heights resident and Sterling Place Committee on Rat Mitigation (SCRAM)\u00a0 member Mark Abbott said at the news conference at Stroud Playground.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt night, [rats] would come out and they would cross into people\u2019s yards \u2013 you were afraid to walk down the streets at night because you never knew when one of these things would jump out and decide to scurry across your feet or bring their babies with them,\u201d he said. \u201cI am so happy to see that this is actually happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone wants to see rats meet their maker.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A rat in Delury Square in Manhattan\u2019s Financial District. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

John Di Leonardo, executive director of the animal advocacy group Humane Long Island, told The Post that the rats will suffer a \u201cslow and painful death\u201d due to the poison \u2013 and argued lethal methods don\u2019t work \u201cas the resultant spike in the food supply causes accelerated breeding among survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be rats in New York City, and a walk through any part of the city shows plenty of food and trash on the sidewalk and streets,\u201d Di Leonardo added. \u201cIf that\u2019s taken care of, the rat population will decrease naturally. Carbon monoxide kills people and pets every day, never intentionally \u2013 using it in city parks and streets is both cruel and reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The latest initiative in the war on rats \u2013 followed by containerizing 70% of the city\u2019s street trash and even feeding the rodents birth control \u2013 is set to put an end to the \u201chistorically exploited\u201d street tree beds used by vermin as a breeding ground. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s kill team will start \u201cimmediately\u201d and respond to referrals from the health department and 311 reports \u2013 such as the 2,300 street tree bed-related rat reports received last year, Parks sources said.<\/p>\n

The team is expected to see disproportionately high calls to \u201crat mitigation zones\u201d in Bedford-Stuyvesant\/Bushwick, Harlem, Bronx Grand Concourse\u00a0 and East Village\/Chinatown.<\/p>\n

In each of the last six months, 311 complaints of rodent sightings have decreased compared to the same months last year, with sightings down 22% last month and 17% to date this month, City Hall said \u2014 largely attributing the success to changing waste containerization rules.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, rats in street tree beds have gone unaddressed \u2014 undermining the hard work of both city agencies and local communities,\u201d NYC Parks Commissioner Rodriguez-Rosa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this new investment, we\u2019re closing that gap. By combining science-based, non-toxic approaches with dedicated staff, we\u2019re protecting our trees, our neighborhoods, and our quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows Collage of NYC’s war on rats: fumigation, rat, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32737,81,61840,9,56,63,65,7733,64,22458,61837,61842,61838,61839,61841],"class_list":{"0":"post-147486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-carbon-monoxide","9":"tag-eric-adams","10":"tag-michael-nagle","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-mayor","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-nyc-parks","18":"tag-rat-burrows","19":"tag-street-trash","20":"tag-street-tree","21":"tag-tree-beds","22":"tag-vermin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}