New York – New York is feeling overwhelmed by its rat population.
No one knows how many rodents prowl the sewers and alleyways. The most commonly cited statistic – a rat for each of the 8 million-plus residents in New York – is dismissed as overstated by most experts, who say the true figure is unknowable.
But there’s no question that rats are an ever-present plague of city living.
Rats can mate up to 20 times a day, meaning that one pair could produce 15,000 offspring in a year, said Robert Sullivan, author of the 2004 book “Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants.”
During the last week of June, in an audit of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s rodent control efforts, the city comptroller chastised officials for taking a month, on average, to respond to rat sightings.
Officials said there was a reason for the slow response: After the city opened its 311 complaint and information telephone line in the spring of 2004, rat complaints spiked by 40 percent and reached more than 31,000 in 2005. So far this year, the city is on track to register a similar number of complaints.
The audit of the city’s rodent control efforts is just the latest marker in the unending struggle against the seemingly indestructible brown rat.
“Most likely, if you are in New York while you are reading this sentence or even in any other major city in America, then you are in proximity to two or more rats having sex,” Sullivan wrote.
