Why New York Has So Many Rats - NYC Revealed

Why New York Has So Many Rats - NYC Revealed

Getting up early allows me to see the action before anyone else. I sneak in, turn off the ligWhy New York Has So Many Rats - NYC Revealedhts, and grab my tools before nobody is around. It's always quiet when I'm working - setting traps or exterminating rats - because no one is around.

each day New York's crowded streets are

abundant with the sights

smells and sounds that make the city so

easily recognizable

but at night something else scurries

around the city streets

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York is known for its rats next to the

pigeon they are probably the closest

thing the city has to a mascot they are

fascinating

they are complex in their behavior

other people obviously would think that

they are disgusting they're vermin

people who move here from out of state

are just not ready for the amount of

rats that we have out and about

New York City has long been considered

one of the rattiest cities in America

some estimate around 2 million rats call

it home

While most New Yorkers have accepted

rats as part of City Life they pose

various health risks and while

government agencies work to manage the

problem some New Yorkers have taken it

into their own hands

I see rats that you don't and they're

going bananas here tonight

here is how New York City rats out its

rodents

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thank you

rats have been here since the city was

founded rats have lived in the city rats

have survived in the cities by the law

of large numbers

Richard Reynolds and his team of rat

hunting canines have proud the streets

of New York City for nearly 30 years

the dogs are trained to dispatch rats

they have jobs that they do

there are catch dogs that stand out away

from the action and wait for rats to run

then you have to push dogs that go into

trash bags and other places and make the

rats bolt to the catch dogs

this dog right here Rommel he's a young

terrier and basically what this dog does

in the group is he sniffs him out and he

kind of like sets him up so the other

dogs can knock him down so to speak

well you're going to see uh what looks

like Mayhem it's actually very

controlled Mayhem and very well planned

man

with the camera over here over here

right there you guys ready here we go

here we go party

in New York City the rat that we see is

the Radisson or vegicus commonly

referred to as the Norway rat but

probably more accurately referred to as

the brown rat these brown rats made

their New York City debut in the mid

1700s as ships would set sail for the

colonies rats would stow away on board

and find a home in the new world what

has made them so successful in New York

City is that there's always been a dense

population of people that have provided

food and water for them and giving those

essential needs for survival they have

done very well threats are nothing short

of adaptable they can survive on just

one ounce of food and water each day

they also reproduce quickly with the

average gestation period lasting from 21

to 23 days

a female rat birthes around eight pups

in a single litter these newborns will

then begin to reproduce with other rats

in just five weeks since they arrived

centuries ago rats have evolved into two

distinct groups and like human New

Yorkers they can be classified by their

neighborhoods Uptown and downtown rats a

2017 study from Fordham University found

that both groups differ genetically and

are separated by a geographic barrier

Midtown

but Midtown Manhattan is not rat free

not even close the area is more of a

commercial District

there is less household trash in

backyard space for rats to thrive off of

then in uptown or downtown Manhattan you

know they have some really fantastic

abilities that allow them to navigate

human environments very successfully

being that rad to mice also carry a ton

of pathogens it is a matter of public

health they carry things like

toxoplasmosis salmonella the Bubonic

plague and we don't want any of that

It's usually the Exterminator that gets

the first call when a rat is spotted

I am an exterminator and I'm an owner

operator of my own company I do

extermination of rodents insects and

Wildlife trapping

as an exterminator a typical day is

getting up super super early so I can

see the action I have keys for almost

all of my restaurants no one is around

it's quiet I sneak in I keep the lights

off I grab my flashlight I flash it

around the location and I look to see

what's scattering

so there's an entire ecosystem in the

wall voice of New York City buildings at

all times that would probably make a lot

of people want to vomit and jump out of

their skin

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as you can see somebody tries to close

the rodent hole with spray foam

and generally eroding can not through

weak concrete mortar would very easily

and plastic so something like this

does not keep them out

the entry point for this building in

particular

is right here

you can see that there's a hole in the

building if I stick my hand up it just

goes all the way up so there is a gap

where there's a lack of insulation

definitely no solid insulation and if

you look at these brown marks right here

where the concrete goes from Gray to

this dark color that's actually from the

rat's body it's an oil-based secrete

called sebum it leaves the scent Trail

and it will invite other rats to

actually file them up in here as we

could see by the extreme amount of dark

in color there is quite an infestation

and we've got some droppings right here

in the corner and the scent of urine

if I was in charge of getting rid of all

the rats the very first thing I would do

would be to get rodent proof trash

receptacles If you eliminate the

competing food source the rats will be

more likely to one not breed as often

two not set up shop in places where

people are they're with us because of

our garbage and our littering

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the summer of 2017

City launched a 32 million dollar

city-wide initiative to reduce the rat

population in three target areas by 70

percent

the city installed 336 big belly solar

compactors with no accessible entryway

for the rats

the city now requires increased trash

pickups and any person caught illegally

dumping trash faces heavy fines

but some of these new and improved trash

cans are not as effective as advertised

there you see

solar powered compacting rat proof can

whose purpose is totally defeated

by being left open

by all the stuff around the edges

so you might just as well have a regular

old container they don't work because

they don't lock them

so the rats will win down below

so City exterminators look two other

methods there is a road and bait station

and this is being used by the Department

of Health

to manage a known population and so

inside would be most likely either a

rodenticide that is a bait that the

rodent would feed on and then within a

week or so once it comes to the active

ingredient

or in some cases what they do is they

have a non-toxic fate so it doesn't have

the active ingredient and then they'll

put snap traps in there so the rodent

will come they'll get used to the bait

and then they'll deploy a trap and that

will catch the rodent that comes in

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but still rats persist and some New

Yorkers have taken it upon themselves to

manage the problem

I need a camera over here over here

right there you guys ready here we go

here we go party

over in New Jersey at Liberty State Park

and uh

we had a dog show there that was fairly

overrun with rats and the uh some of our

dogs decided on their own to handle the

problem

and the park superintendent saw that and

said hey can you guys come back and uh

make it a regular thing

and rats was born

any dog will catch a rat any dog will

kill a rat the Terriers do it faster and

better than the other breeds and they

they endure they have the the tenacity

to hang in there a hundred rats a night

are not enough for them

you they still want more answers

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we're not really having an effect on the

Rock population in New York we do it for

the dogs first for the enrichment for

the Fulfillment of the dog's DNA we're

helping the community out secondary to

it which is good but you're never going

to control a rap population it's a

never-ending thing

from traps to improving sanitation to

hunting dogs people are always coming up

with ways to wage war on the city's rats

exterminators researchers and City

officials alike urge New Yorkers to be

vigilant in doing their part the only

thing that's ever gonna reduce rats to

the manageable levels to clean up

if you remove the food supply the rats

go away

plain and simple

it's important that we consider we want

to manage the problem but the problem

didn't start in one day the problem

started over time as rodents were

attracted to an area for food and so now

we have to take that time to manage the

population

effectively otherwise we're not going to

be able to eliminate the problem from a

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