Anyone but this guy for mayor
1
Wouldn't feasible resolutions to reduce the amount of trash that attracts rats be more beneficial ?
Obviously the rats are feeding on food waste so if New Yorkers and the current administration are so ecologically minded find a means to reduce food waste!
Obviously the rats are feeding on food waste so if New Yorkers and the current administration are so ecologically minded find a means to reduce food waste!
4
How did he get the rat to pose for the picture?
2
He said "cheese". Get it?
2
NYC needs to universally, absolutely put ALL of its refuse IN GARBAGE CANS!
Rats are clever, they'll still find food, but currently you are just serving it to them in to-go bags! There seems to be garbage literally everywhere - NYC is filthy even compared to other big dirty cities. Feed your rats a lot less and they'll reproduce a lot less. It is not a problem you can just kill your way out of.
By the way, is the mayor getting a small courtesy payment for each of those $7000 solar powered garbage bins he orders installed? And how well do those work in the middle of winter or in the shadow of a tall building?
Rats are clever, they'll still find food, but currently you are just serving it to them in to-go bags! There seems to be garbage literally everywhere - NYC is filthy even compared to other big dirty cities. Feed your rats a lot less and they'll reproduce a lot less. It is not a problem you can just kill your way out of.
By the way, is the mayor getting a small courtesy payment for each of those $7000 solar powered garbage bins he orders installed? And how well do those work in the middle of winter or in the shadow of a tall building?
2
What the article doesn't mention is that high rises already use bins like containers filled with compactor bags for every other day collection with special trucks and mobile loaders manned by maintenance that lift and bring the bins to the trucks. So loading docks space need to be allotted for this when constructed. Other buildings do not have loading docks. Garbage bags or single metal or small plastic containers are useless.
2
Rats are incredibly intelligent and sociable animals I suffocating them with CO2 and their burrows is so repugnant and inhumane. Surely we can do better.
4
Suffocating them with CO2 is more humane than a lot of things we humans do to rats, but yes, we should do better.
1. Stiffer penalties for improper refuse disposal
2. Incentives for cat ownership
2. Incentives for cat ownership
5
"Cleanliness is next to Rat-lessness."
5
Hold on one second. The City has signs on buses and in the subway identifying racoons and deer (among other animals) as New Yorkers with whom we are to co-exist. Why not rats? Seems specist to me.
Where are the animal rights people on this topic anyway?
Where are the animal rights people on this topic anyway?
7
If you ever want to really understand the rat problem, watch them come out of the various city parks at night. It's like a moving carpet. Unless you cut off the food supply, they will flourish. Perhaps a bounty per rat would help as well.
3
I returned to NYC for two years recently and the first thing I noticed was the mounds of garbage, everywhere. Anytime the mayor called for more housing it occured to me that there is already too much garbage, too much congestion, and too much traffic for NYC to grow. Indeed, it should shrink if it cannot improve the quality of life as it exists today. It looks like a garbage dump, not the beautiful city I left in 1989.
7
Pretty much EVERYWHERE ELSE puts out their garbage in large plastic bins instead of throwing bags on the sidewalk. Rats have a much harder time getting into a bin than they do chewing a hole in a trash bag. Why is no one discussing this? It is so obvious.
And we should also review requirements that larger buildings have a certain amount of green space along their perimeter. Rats nest in the dirt and come out to eat the trash when it's available. If those areas were filled in with concrete, rats would have a much harder time finding a place to live that's located close to a food source.
It seems like there are simple, low-cost or free methods of reducing the rat population that are being ignored.
And we should also review requirements that larger buildings have a certain amount of green space along their perimeter. Rats nest in the dirt and come out to eat the trash when it's available. If those areas were filled in with concrete, rats would have a much harder time finding a place to live that's located close to a food source.
It seems like there are simple, low-cost or free methods of reducing the rat population that are being ignored.
9
Eliminate their food source, and you will eliminate rats. In most major European cities, trash bags are NEVER just dumped on the street at night for pick up. There are usually heavy plastic bins with tight lids that are automatically picked up by a garbage truck. When restaurants, apartment buildings, and shops dump their trash on the streets in just thin plastic bags it's like food heaven for the rats.
You can poison, ice, spray, shoot, etc. as much as you want, but as long as food is easily available, like in plastic bags, the rats will come
You can poison, ice, spray, shoot, etc. as much as you want, but as long as food is easily available, like in plastic bags, the rats will come
9
One of my favorite rat stories happened about 20 years ago, While standing on a crowded subway platform in midtown waiting for an A train, I noticed the other people waiting suddenly backing up, away from the platform. As the people backing up got closer to me, I saw a rat slowly walking along the platform edge. People were trying to move away from the rat, which was rather large. Suddenly, a C train entered the station and opened its doors. The rat walked into the last car and the doors closed. I can still remember the faces of the people pressed up against the glass window in the last car, screaming, as the train pulled away from the station. For better or worse, rats are a fact of life in New York City and will never be eradicated. The best we can hope is that our encounters with them are limited.
4
Dry ice Oiy veh you don't need to be an astrophysicist to have figured this out. Not enough ideas are presented here. The explosion of restaurants where private sanitation is used, the constant digging up foundations in new construction like 2nd avenue subway, the subways tracks where I see them all the time, Also, they don't have a natural enemy like pigs, birds of prey and cats that roamed the streets 300 years ago. and thrive in sewers, maritime barges and riverbanks. How clean the residents and serious the property managers are is a big factor.
1
Where is the sterilization program targeting female rats going?
I haven't heard about it for a while. Starving them is a long process.
Sterilization will reduce their numbers significantly. Another article I read indicates that one pair of rats is capable of producing 45,000 offspring in one year!
I haven't heard about it for a while. Starving them is a long process.
Sterilization will reduce their numbers significantly. Another article I read indicates that one pair of rats is capable of producing 45,000 offspring in one year!
3
Do YOU want to be the one to fit the female rats with IUDs?
2
How do they expect the rat population to decrease when they keep letting the likes Sheldon Silver out of prison?
13
It all starts with who is managing your building, who the property manager is and who the owner is. When REBNY does nothing to advocate for better oversight of property managers, and the city has no idea how they choose their property managers, and HPD refuses to tell the public how they decide on their property managers you will have rats.
2
"A spokeswoman for Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents some building workers who take out trash and has endorsed Mr. de Blasio for re-election, said the union was reviewing the proposal."
Please...!!
Please...!!
2
Maybe the taxpayers and subway riders should think about using dry ice in and around Gracy Mansion.
4
.....and don't forget City Hall! And Albany!!
4
spend it on a HUGE public education campaign about public sanitation. Require the hospitality and food industry to have rat proof containers, or subsidize the industry to do so. a MASSIVE reason why we have waste laying in public. Also, we are more dignified than rats. I have seen people blatantly drop trash on the ground, leave their mcdonalds bag on the floor of the subway and dash out of the car, when there's a trash can right there on the platform waiting for them. its called being lazy and uninformed.
14
No trash should be left on the streets. All trash should be in light weight, heavy plastic, modest sized, wheeled dumpsters. Let the city buy them in bulk to get the lowest price, provide the landlords with the amount needed based on number of residents and bill the landlords for them. This was done in Chicago in the 80s, THE EIGHTIES. It worked. They multiply because of the amount of food available, and their food is our garbage, freely available in plastic bags it takes them about a quarter of a second to knaw through, there on the streets for hours, giving them amply leisure dining. This isnt rocket science. These are dumb animals. They dont need to be suffocated, They can be starved.
10
Sorry to contradict you, but rats are not dumb animals. In fact, they are smarter than many of us.
https://hbr.org/2015/01/rats-can-be-smarter-than-people
Enjoy!
https://hbr.org/2015/01/rats-can-be-smarter-than-people
Enjoy!
2
Killing the rats solves nothing, since you can't possibly kill them all. Sterilizing them won't fix it either, since you can't possibly sterilize them all. As long as there is food available, the survivors' progeny will just have more food available per rat, resulting in more frequent litters with larger numbers of surviving pups per litter. Result: the rat population will immediately bounce back to the same level.
You have to reduce the food supply. Putting garbage out at a different time of day is no solution; rats will eat whenever the food is available. Get the garbage off the streets and into rat-proof containers. Sure, they cost money, but it's basically a one-time expense.
You have to reduce the food supply. Putting garbage out at a different time of day is no solution; rats will eat whenever the food is available. Get the garbage off the streets and into rat-proof containers. Sure, they cost money, but it's basically a one-time expense.
12
Garbage Can is not the only problem. The rat or mice are surviving in every households and unfortunately no any reliable pesticide is available in the supermarket. All the suppliers of mice and rat traps have proved totally failures, and the mice and rats have become so sneaky that they never come close to them. I have spent hundreds of dollar to prevent mice entering my house, but all it went in vain. It's great that the Mayor de Blasio has taken an initiative again, but much more research work has to be done to eradicate rats from the city of New York, and most particularly from the every house of New York City.
5
I once thought that mice and roaches were just a fact of NYC life. Back then, I lived in a Brooklyn neighborhood of 2-family attached rowhouses that had mostly been subdivided into 3 and 4 families each and was densely populated (and had all the litter and garbage on the streets to prove it!).
Since then I moved out to an eastern Queens neighborhood where most houses are single family and detached. Although we still have people driving or walking through the neighborhood and littering, there's just not a ton of trash lying about. I have not seen a single roach or mouse here in more than 2 years. New apartment buildings are being built nearby and I hope that the increased density does not lead to more litter and vermin. Vermin do not have to be a fact of life here!
Since then I moved out to an eastern Queens neighborhood where most houses are single family and detached. Although we still have people driving or walking through the neighborhood and littering, there's just not a ton of trash lying about. I have not seen a single roach or mouse here in more than 2 years. New apartment buildings are being built nearby and I hope that the increased density does not lead to more litter and vermin. Vermin do not have to be a fact of life here!
I had a friend with a pet rat. A white lab rat, not a street rat. It was smart, funny and nice. He loved to play around and take a ride on her shoulders. Rats and humans have always had an intimate relationship. The loved ones live in our care, and they like it. The street ones live in our filth and they like it. They are symbiotic to us, and it will be fitting when a few finally stow away on ships when we build cities on Mars. We'll wonder how they got there, but a new species, Ruttus Ares, shall be born. It's only a matter of time. Also, it's a given that we would also see Periplaneta ares as well.
5
One thing that created the problem was the introduction of plastic garbage bags. I remember an earlier time when NYC sidewalks were lined with vermin proof metal garbage cans. Now you have stacks of plastic bags.
8
Bring back the snakes! Rat snakes, milk snakes and garter snakes are all voracious rodent eaters and they were once native to this area. They are non-venomous and people shy.
16
During the summer Central Park has streams of rats in broad daylight on the paths and lawns, seemingly with no fear of people. What is going on? They run into the park because millions of tourists use trash cans that are pretty, color-coded and open at the top! Same on the city streets. Why not use the racoon/rodent proof cans throughout the city approved by state parks?
7
According to the piece, the city is "deploying 336 new rat-proof garbage bins that compact trash using solar power and cost $7,000 a piece."
3
There are active compost areas in the NE section of the park, there are food vendors all around and inside the park, there are crazy bag lady pidgeon feeders. One idea is to increase the business districts' hiring -the Doe fund. These men clean out the garbage bins when overflowing but they too should not leave the bags in the street. The reason the cans are open in the park or reduced , is fear of a bomb? Rat poison does kill the falcons and hawks who eat them. I wonder if the rats drowned during Sandy. Sanitation service has been cut back. Food inspectors are giving A ratings to restaurants but how about rating sidewalk cleanliness including hosing it daily.
1
This is great! We've finally figured out what to do with all the carbon dioxide we're spewing. So what if we breath a little pesticide?
However, the rats are likely to evolve a means of thriving on CO2, probably through photosynthesis. So instead of brown or gray rats, we'll have green ones.
Perhaps we could drop a truck load into the White House to test it out.
However, the rats are likely to evolve a means of thriving on CO2, probably through photosynthesis. So instead of brown or gray rats, we'll have green ones.
Perhaps we could drop a truck load into the White House to test it out.
4
There is a club of NYC dachsund owners who let their dogs go kill rats for fun.
http://gothamist.com/2016/01/09/graphic_video_nyers_go_on_dog_hunts.php
That said, neutered/spayed feral cats as part of a "TNR" (trap-neuter-release) program are the best way to control a rodent infestation.
http://gothamist.com/2016/01/09/graphic_video_nyers_go_on_dog_hunts.php
That said, neutered/spayed feral cats as part of a "TNR" (trap-neuter-release) program are the best way to control a rodent infestation.
7
Dry ice sounds like a decent idea because it does not cause poisoned carcasses that the birds would eat. There are many rats taking over Central Park now on the west side around and north of the castle.
3
The mayor is simply trying to divert our attention away from his recent trip to another country to join anarchists protesting capitalism. Now he's back here re-aligning himself with capitalist real-estate moguls destroying our neighborhoods with their monster-sized buildings (non-stop blasting and construction causes rats to move around). The mayor seems to always assume that the public doesn't notice his hypocrisy on a variety of topics. Please Dems/Repubs/Independent parties---come up with a candidate for Mayor who will get his/her priorities straight. Our city is going down the tubes fast.
5
Spending $32 million on a symptom instead of addressing the problem is irresponsible. If anything, our rodent neighbors are doing a better job of cleaning up after messy NYers than our mayor. Don't like rats? Stop throwing pizza in the subway for them to clean up.
8
Mr. Mayor, cure the disease not the symptoms. I'm guessing the budget allocation is making some of your core voters happy despite its lack of efficacy. After all, for you being mayor, it's about reelection not about--actual, not perceived--good governance as your track record shows.
3
How do you get rid of the Rats in City Hall ?
5
Their still there
There are several stray cats in my neighborhood here in CT and I'm sure they're eating something. Why not release a ton of stray cats in the city to help with this rat problem.
If only you can train the flying rats to hunt the grounded ones; that would be something!
If only you can train the flying rats to hunt the grounded ones; that would be something!
2
they're actually using feral cats to try to mitigate the rat population at the javits center.
2
My dog has killed a couple of rats in the park. Let's put our city's canine units to work - how about a bounty? $32M/2M = $16/rat.
6
Instead of dry ice, it would be more fun to bring in an army of terriers. Let's make things interesting!
5
I still say NY and the world at large has a bigger problem: humans.
14
Rats--the reason why no New Yorker should ever wear flip flops after sunset. Learned this the hard way one evening when two came scampering across the sidewalk and ran straight over the top of my right foot. Luckily I escaped without any physical trauma, but the psychological wounds have yet to fully heal...
11
Why do we reliably go the brutal route, even when there's evidence that a more humane approach could have the practical effects we seek and is, well, humane?????? Even the progressive NYT unquestioningly and irritatingly repeats the standard lines about no one caring about the rats. Well, when I lived in NYC, I cared - as we all should - that all beings be treated fairly and that they not be needlessly tortured and killed if a more compassionate alternative exists.
The MTA is conducting a rat immuno-contraception study after a prior study in 2013 with "promising results." Why have four years elapsed since the 2013 study? Why did NYC pivot to cruelly killing rats (and I assume not discourage all the poisoning typically done in the private sector) when there was this evidence of a reasonable humane alternative????
http://web.mta.info/nyct/RatPopulationManagementScientificFieldStudy.htm
https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/new-york/nyc-deploy-r...
The MTA is conducting a rat immuno-contraception study after a prior study in 2013 with "promising results." Why have four years elapsed since the 2013 study? Why did NYC pivot to cruelly killing rats (and I assume not discourage all the poisoning typically done in the private sector) when there was this evidence of a reasonable humane alternative????
http://web.mta.info/nyct/RatPopulationManagementScientificFieldStudy.htm
https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/new-york/nyc-deploy-r...
7
Sounds like these are good plans, but they won't work. That is, they'll kill a lot of rats, maybe even bring the total rat population of NYC down by five percent. But it won't be possible to put dry ice everywhere rats live, and they don't only feed on bagged garbage.
Another initiative to control the rat population would be a major crackdown on littering. In areas where people toss their pizza crust over their shoulder rather than put it in a bin, there are a lot more rats on the streets. Littering seems directly related to income levels, so the places to focus on would be lower income neighborhoods, and the poor will resist any controls on littering. They may even start to litter more in resistance.
A better plan might be to seed NYC with rat snakes, particularly grey and black rat snakes which are endangered species. If people could be convinced to leave the snakes alone to do their jobs, they would probably cut down on the rat population significantly, with no environmental damage at all.
In any case, I hope these efforts prove effective, but it should be kept in mind that eliminating rats from NYC completely is impossible, so long as humans live here and provide them with a continual abundance of food.
Another initiative to control the rat population would be a major crackdown on littering. In areas where people toss their pizza crust over their shoulder rather than put it in a bin, there are a lot more rats on the streets. Littering seems directly related to income levels, so the places to focus on would be lower income neighborhoods, and the poor will resist any controls on littering. They may even start to litter more in resistance.
A better plan might be to seed NYC with rat snakes, particularly grey and black rat snakes which are endangered species. If people could be convinced to leave the snakes alone to do their jobs, they would probably cut down on the rat population significantly, with no environmental damage at all.
In any case, I hope these efforts prove effective, but it should be kept in mind that eliminating rats from NYC completely is impossible, so long as humans live here and provide them with a continual abundance of food.
15
But won't we then have an infestation of rat snakes? This reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Bart adopts two lizards that escape and eat all of the town's pigeons, thus solving its pigeon problem. Lisa worries the town will become infested by lizards, but Skinner tells her they will send in snakes to eat the lizards, then gorillas to eat the snakes, and then when winter comes all the gorillas will just freeze to death!
3
Dear Tom Moretz,
Good point, and I love that Simpsons episode. My thinking was that rat snakes are completely harmless to humans; they don't carry diseases we can catch, aren't poisonous, are constrictors that go for smaller prey, and so on. I think we could deal with an infestation of rat snakes without any real trouble, and if they largely eliminated the rats, they'd start starving too for lack of prey.
Good point, and I love that Simpsons episode. My thinking was that rat snakes are completely harmless to humans; they don't carry diseases we can catch, aren't poisonous, are constrictors that go for smaller prey, and so on. I think we could deal with an infestation of rat snakes without any real trouble, and if they largely eliminated the rats, they'd start starving too for lack of prey.
1
Are you referencing rodents or politicians?
3
Police Officers assassinated, two women shot dead and another woman raped on her way to church by 5 men and this mayor is worried about rats? Perhaps he should go back to Germany and protest since that's what he does best.
5
Dear Queens Grl,
The killings and rape are actually well below the usual rates for NYC. It's always a problem, but it's a problem you get whenever you get enough humans in one place, and it's usually been worse here. Rats on the other hand, also a perennial problem, are on the upswing. But I'm sure the Mayor is addressing the violent crime problems as well, it's not like his sole focus is rats.
The killings and rape are actually well below the usual rates for NYC. It's always a problem, but it's a problem you get whenever you get enough humans in one place, and it's usually been worse here. Rats on the other hand, also a perennial problem, are on the upswing. But I'm sure the Mayor is addressing the violent crime problems as well, it's not like his sole focus is rats.
1
Cut off the food supply and you wont have so many rats.
Stop leaving food out overnight in plastic bags.
Force people to separate their food waste and place it in metal containers.
Tree pits are also great for rats - they burrow from one to the next and have an underground highway to the next pile of trash bags. And start fining the low lives that throw their food waste on the ground. Arrest them if necessary.
Stop leaving food out overnight in plastic bags.
Force people to separate their food waste and place it in metal containers.
Tree pits are also great for rats - they burrow from one to the next and have an underground highway to the next pile of trash bags. And start fining the low lives that throw their food waste on the ground. Arrest them if necessary.
4
Christoper Street, please!!!
3
I would like to see some money devoted to employing people to do more sweeping and cleaning in these areas (like the people who sweep in front of streets and buildings in midtown) and some enforcement of anti-littering laws, with people getting tickets for trash. I've seen people wantonly throw trash from trains and moving cars, not to mention the folks who walk around and leave trash on the ground when there is a garbage can at the end of the block. And don't get me started on people leaving garbage on benches and railings in public parks. To quote an old ad: "New York, let's clean up New York."
14
Every time they open the street for sewer or cable work or any other construction , the rats nests are disturbed and they start roaming the streets - but - If you call the city to ask them to deal with the infestation - the city inspector will fine YOU or your building even though the rats did not come from your building but from the street !
3
What happened to the proposal I read in an article awhile ago to unleash 500,000 cats in NY to combat the rat problem? Cats are the only natural predators of rats so every restaurant, pizza joint, apartment building and trash dump in the city should have at least one ot two. Cats wouldn't run away with the pizza, but would need potty space; imagine 500,000 litter boxes in the city.
2
Dear Lou Simpson,
Sorry but your source of information is inaccurate, cats do not naturally go after rats. They can be trained to do so, but it takes training, they instinctively hunt mice but avoid rats.
I proposed snakes myself, since certain snakes go after rats specifically. Others mentioned terriers, there are a few dog breeds that will hunt rats.
Sorry but your source of information is inaccurate, cats do not naturally go after rats. They can be trained to do so, but it takes training, they instinctively hunt mice but avoid rats.
I proposed snakes myself, since certain snakes go after rats specifically. Others mentioned terriers, there are a few dog breeds that will hunt rats.
2
Stop feeding them. The real source of the problem is the slobs that throw trash into the subway tracks and on the ground at street level. I see people do it all the time and it's annoying.
7
Call in the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Do *not* cut the City's vermin eradication budget until *after* he's been paid. Offer a substantial bonus if he also removes unethical political figures. Do *not* forget to pay the bonus.
3
Why should the city (or a private individual) need permission to stuff a rat burrow with dry ice? It's harmless, unless you fill an entire room with the vapor and suffocate. It's "natural".
2
New Yorkers you need the legendary wheelie bins we have here. No garbage bags allowed on the streets any more. Remove the food. Remove the rats
12
People are disgusted by rats.... but how about litter and trash? Does that disgust them? Because that is what is keeping the rats going. Remove their source of food and you will remove the rats. The real problem is improperly discarded litter and trash. Dispose of it properly and the rats won't have anything to eat and will move on. Hopefully.
8
If you take a walk at night around the side streets near Gracie Mansion, you will spot rats darting in and out from basement stairs, between cars, even by the Private School across from the Park, because everyone leaves their garbage out in plastic bags.
3
Can someone please explain what/why dirt floors in public housing??
4
Sure, public housing is always built by the lowest bidder, and the primary goal is to keep costs low. Dirt floors in the basements are the cheapest floors you can build.
1
I'm a native New Yorker who just came back from a visit to NYC. I saw a huge rat near the turnstiles at a station in Queens. Most subway rats I've seen were on the tracks! Anyway, rather than these very costly, ambitious strategies, how about simply cleaning the streets and subways thoroughly and regularly? The city was quite dirty during my recent visit. Aside from picking up trash does DOS clean? Do Store and home owners sweep in front of their places?
5
I hate to brag folks but I live in the Province of Alberta up here in Canada. We've been rat free for more than half a century. Mind you, the squirrels seem to be taking over.
9
Not entirely true. While the harsh Alberta winter does keep their numbers in check. http://globalnews.ca/news/2282441/more-than-a-dozen-rats-found-on-rural-...
2
Oh poor you! And what do you propose to do about those squirrels?
I hope not by singing "oh Canada", or similar tune… That Shirley would be declared illegal warfare by the Geneva Convention
I hope not by singing "oh Canada", or similar tune… That Shirley would be declared illegal warfare by the Geneva Convention
1
NY NY the town so nice they named it twice. Once for the people once for the rats.
22
I'm a native New Yorker but let me tell ya something, if there's one thing that could make me leave this city it's the rats. Didn't we hear from Mayor Do-Little DeBlasio after those folks in the Bronx died several months back from a rat-born illness that we were going to "sterilize" the rats? Yeah, uh huh, and the FDR Drive is perfectly paved from one end to the other, as we were very erroneously informed about a year and a half ago. So now we're investing $32M to defeat the rats? Talk to me when we're ready to add a zero to that amount, although I doubt that $320M would do much at this point to defeat the enemy that, in my view, has already won the war - the rats are everywhere and it's disgusting and if I were ever going to leave this city, the one thing that would convince me to do so.......yeah, I've said it before, just like saying we're "taking on the rats", so many empty words.
15
Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide and has been around for over a hundred years. It is incredibly cheap to manufacture, so why do we need a "special" product made by Bell Labs, presumably not the same Bell Labs once staffed by Nobel laureates? I smell a rat.
33
Can't be used unless it's designated a pesticide; therefore somebody has to make money on that… Get it? It's the way of the capitalist!
20
This is the sort of over-regulation which makes government regulators looks stupid. And drives the NYC cost to $32 millions.
Now, is there some way to invest in dry ice futures?
Turns out it's Bell Laboratories, Inc.: "The world leader in Rodent Control Technology" ( dry ice?). Not Nokia Bell Labs, once AT&T's marvelous research arm, reduced to marketing dry ice. websites? bellabs.com vs bell-labs.....
Now, is there some way to invest in dry ice futures?
Turns out it's Bell Laboratories, Inc.: "The world leader in Rodent Control Technology" ( dry ice?). Not Nokia Bell Labs, once AT&T's marvelous research arm, reduced to marketing dry ice. websites? bellabs.com vs bell-labs.....
8
Why does nobody ask where the famous pizza rat got the slice from ? Obviously, from the same oblivious New Yorkers who throw all their trash on the floor and then complain about the rat plague. Sunday night I went home with the LIRR from Penn Station , and the train car floors were littered with trash and spilled drinks all over. Why do need Americans constantly somebody to clean up after them ?
73
of course, New york is just a open flied garbage, everywhere you can see trash, trash and trash. when i arrived in new-york, i was deeply chocked : it looks like a third world town, and today i am not able to accept this. Yesterday i crossed by walk the Cross bay bridge, i avoid at the last time to put my feet in rest of pizza, left by some fishers. Even if the people who practice activities in the the "wild" have this behavior, rats and my despair have still good days.
1
The famous pizza rat was trained by its owner to drag a slice of pizza down steps.
Lookitup.
Lookitup.
4
Hear hear. If human beings had better habits we might never have had such evolutionary pestilence such as the rat and roach.
2
You dirty rat.
Let me get this straight.
Dry ice to suffocate Rattus Rattus, and en masse no less.
Ah, smothered rat; rat etouffee, if you will.
And how will the city deal with the aroma (dare I say stench?) of rotting rat corpse in all those inaccessible rat friendly locales?
Hmm?
Let me get this straight.
Dry ice to suffocate Rattus Rattus, and en masse no less.
Ah, smothered rat; rat etouffee, if you will.
And how will the city deal with the aroma (dare I say stench?) of rotting rat corpse in all those inaccessible rat friendly locales?
Hmm?
28
And fortunately for the survivors, that'll just be a lot of food for them to repopulate… Don't have my pentameter–a-rhyming yet.
2
$32,000,000 to kill our 8,000,00 legendary rats & if it succeeds in getting them all that's $4/rat. But if there are only 2,000,000, as projected in a NY Times article in Nov. 2014, and we get them all that's $16/rat. Since we've had rats since who knows when, remember the black plagues of medieval times they were all over Europe then, the odds are that we just can't get them all, and if we did more would just wander in from the suburbs or wherever, that just raises the cost/rat killed to an astronomical number.
Sounds like just another expensive, ludicrous DeBlasio program.
Sounds like just another expensive, ludicrous DeBlasio program.
15
Rats gestate in under a month and live for about two years.
If there is an infestation, hit 'em with the dry ice. But long term you have to deny them food.
If there is an infestation, hit 'em with the dry ice. But long term you have to deny them food.
32
I thought that the city administration was well acquainted with last year's EPA registration of a rat birth control product, Contrapest, which was reportedly field tested in New York City under a subway station and reduced the rat population by 40% in 12 weeks. From what I've read, killing rats will drive them to try and procreate even more. This product seems ideal for a city area if not for an individual home, and I've read that other cities are starting to use it.
42
How about a targeted combination of the two methods?
22
Rats were here before Blasio. They will still be here after Blasio leaves Gracie Mansion. Better to spend the 32mil on upgrading the subway!
40
New Yorkers discard food on the streets and restaurants as well as residential buildings large and small put garbage out in plastic bags not garbage cans the night before pickup. No wonder we have a rat problem. Rats aren't the problem, we are.
92
@ Peter Kostmayer.
Absolutely. There a has to be a comapaign to change bad behavior, and pressure - from residents as well as the city - on businesses and buildings to limit the amount of time their trash is offered as rat takeout. Plus new campaigns and plans to separate compostables from trash. Many New Yorkers - and visitors - are sloppy, assuming someone is being paid to clean up. They are sort of right: taxpayers are paying and will pay more and more, unless people cooperate with recycling and trash rules.
Absolutely. There a has to be a comapaign to change bad behavior, and pressure - from residents as well as the city - on businesses and buildings to limit the amount of time their trash is offered as rat takeout. Plus new campaigns and plans to separate compostables from trash. Many New Yorkers - and visitors - are sloppy, assuming someone is being paid to clean up. They are sort of right: taxpayers are paying and will pay more and more, unless people cooperate with recycling and trash rules.
5
plus their breeding ground the subway network is a free invitation to dinner with the food and garbage most people throw in there...
3