The Big Apple is winning the War on Rats. <\/p>\n
Reported sightings of the scrappy scavengers are on track to hit their lowest numbers since the pandemic for the first half of 2026 \u2014 as major anti-rodent measures first taken under the Adams administration are seeing positive results, city data shows.<\/p>\n
There were around 9,900 calls for rats in the first seven months of the year \u2014 marking the first time reports have fallen below the 10,000 threshold during that timeframe since 2020, according to 311 data.<\/p>\n
Rat sightings in the Big Apple are on track to hit pre-pandemic lows. Leonardo Munoz<\/p>\n
That\u2019s also a 22% plummet from how many rat sightings were reported to the city in the first half of last year, an incredible drop former Mayor Eric Adams celebrated as a major win in the battle in the ongoing war he declared in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen rats sighting go down, they don\u2019t go down in just one or two days. The plan was simply to stop feeding them. We did a series of things like containerization. We were very focused. We are now seeing the results of several years,\u201d Adams told The Post Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople used to come to me all the time and say, \u2018What did you do with all the rats? Do we need to do more?\u2019 Yes, there are still communities where we need to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports for \u201crat sightings\u201d during the seven-month timeframe have been falling each year since 2024, according to the data, which was first reported by Bloomberg.<\/a><\/p>\n James Fuentes said tourists have been screaming less at night since the Empire Bins arrived to West Harlem. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n These sightings hit a peak in 2022, when 16,230 reports of squeaky pests were called in between January and August \u2014 prompting Adams to officially declare the \u201cwar\u201d that fall.<\/p>\n Programs like the Empire Bins have apparently been among the most productive, with rat sightings dropping in the few neighborhoods that have installed the massive on-street trash cans.<\/p>\n \u201cMounds of leaky, smelly black trash bags on our streets have served as an all-you-can-eat buffet for rats, but the era of those bags is drawing to a close,\u201d said Vincent Gragnani, a spokesperson for the Sanitation Department.<\/p>\n There have been around 9,900 calls for rats in the first seven months of 2026. Post Graphic<\/p>\n