Tourists won\u2019t be the only thing hogging the Big Apple sidewalks this summer. <\/p>\n
When people think of New York City rats<\/a>, they usually picture woodchuck-size vermin darting through alleyways, or bursting through basement ceilings a la \u201cRatatouille.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re not wrong.<\/p>\n During a recent ride-along with veteran exterminator<\/a> Favio Ulloa, The Post didn\u2019t spot a single rodent \u2014we must\u2019ve gotten lucky.<\/p>\n But our lack of sightings wasn\u2019t evidence that they weren\u2019t there. <\/p>\n What was discovered was the almost imperceptible cracks in the wall they exploit, the poison used to dispatch them and the constant snake-and-mongoose battle between Gothamites and the city\u2019s most resilient varmint \u2014 all telltale signs that we were in the presence of the city\u2019s furry arch-nemesis<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to [block the holes] with mesh,\u201d said Ulloa, owner of Prestige Pest Services, as he points to gaps in the plumbing at an infested Bronx laundromat. \u201cIf you close an opening with just sheet rock, the rats eat through it. They eat through sheet rock like paper.\u201d<\/p>\n Favio Ulloa holds up a rat caught during a job.<\/p>\n By shadowing Ulloa, who has spent 25 years waging the war on rats, on a hot summer day, The Post was able to glean a behind-the-scenes look at why these beasts thrive in NYC, how to know if a rat problem is in one\u2019s vicinity and what New Yorkers can do to keep our unofficial mascot at bay.<\/p>\n It\u2019s shaping up to be a rat summer<\/p>\n A rat emerges from a pile of garbage bags. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n According to experts, summer is when these fun-size squatters become especially active.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning of the season, we do see a hurricane season for rats,\u201d Gil Bloom, the president of NYC extermination company Standard Pest Management, told The Post. \u201cSo you\u2019re always going to see an increase in rodents and rodent activity as we head into summer.\u201d<\/p>\n The reasons are straightforward. <\/p>\n They breed more in warmer, but not scorching, weather, food is plentiful, and humans spend more time outdoors and are more likely to notice them, causing 311 complaints to climb. However, Bloom quipped that many supposed infestations could simply be the same animal running back and forth.<\/p>\n Ratopia<\/p>\n Rat numbers appear to be on the decline thanks to the city\u2019s anti-rodent campaign, which focuses on containerizing garbage. Tatyana \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n Whether New Yorkers are facing more rat-ivity than years past depends on who you ask. <\/p>\n Through June 28, the city\u2019s 311 hotline had received 7,960 reports of rat sightings, down from 10,492 for the same period last year \u2014 an over 24 percent decline.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Bloom agrees that the city is less ratty than the post-pandemic rat boom, when outdoor dining areas <\/a>and \u201cmakeshift food service areas\u201d created a Valhalla for varmints.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re better in 2026 than we were in 2023, but not as good as we were in 2017, 2019,\u201d said Bloom.<\/p>\n The problem also varies by borough. <\/a><\/p>\n From 2023 to 2024, ratcalls fell <\/a>in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island but soared in Queens and the Bronx, with Jamaica Hills experiencing a 119 percent spike.<\/p>\n Hard to kill<\/p>\n Service Technician Elmer Perez, 31, refills a bait trap for rodents outside a laundromat in the Bronx. The battle remains extraordinarily challenging as these cheese-eaters are supremely adaptable. Ulloa recalled one Brooklyn job where rats swam up through a building\u2019s sewer lines and chewed their way up through several floors. <\/p>\n A Post reporter has experienced their relentlessness firsthand. Several years back, the vermin had stolen into a seemingly impregnable steel storage unit, littering it with droppings and ripping into a sealed box to locate a single piece of forgotten beef jerky. Bloom suspects they likely entered from above.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s seemingly permanent construction zones present another opportunity. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re putting pipes down, you\u2019re putting building materials down,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cYou\u2019re bringing in a workforce of 200 people who eat breakfast and lunch on site and aren\u2019t always the neatest in their garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a real issue given that there are an estimated 3 million of the critters in the city \u2014 three for every person<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, deploying poison isn\u2019t a foolproof solution. Ulloa said that these \u201cvery smart\u201d critters learn to avoid bait that appears to be \u201ckilling\u201d their colony, forcing exterminators to rotate bait types, trap locations and even colors. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you have an exterminator that\u2019s using the same product all the time, it\u2019s not going to be successful,\u201d the rat-man warned. <\/p>\n The verminator pointed out what looked like a festive pink popsicle \u2014 except it was bait laced with a potent anti-coagulant that causes the rodent to bleed out and die.\u00a0<\/p>\n Due to the danger posed to pets and children, they can only be deployed in tamper-resistant stations.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a dog eats this, we buy a dog,\u201d he cautioned. \u201cA cat, children \u2014 you got to be very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, researchers have found evidence <\/a>that Big Apple rats were building an immunity to various rodenticides like a vermin vaccine.<\/p>\n Risk factors<\/p>\n A rodent that was electrocuted after chewing through cables connected in a circuit breaker box.<\/p>\n The problem extends beyond the \u201cick\u201d factor. Rats are vectors for over 35 different diseases, ranging from hantavirus to leptospirosis<\/a>, while also causing costly damage.<\/p>\n Ulloa recalled investigating a Queens apartment where a rat had chewed through the cables behind an electric stove, exposing live copper wires that could\u2019ve sparked a fire.<\/p>\n During the ride-along, Ulloa showed The Post a macabre pic of a dead rodent that had nibbled a cable connected to a circuit breaker in a Manhattan property, electrocuting itself so badly that it singed all its fur off like a roast guinea pig.<\/a><\/p>\n The war on rodents<\/p>\n Some of the Empire Bins in West Harlem. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n The most effective way to curb the scourge? Cut off the rats\u2019 food supply.<\/p>\n
\n Stephen Yang<\/p>\n