After writing a post recently responding to comments that rats are literally overrunning our major US cities, I got curious.
I know what my respected colleagues at D-Con said, but statistics and predictions don’t always tell the whole truth. It occurred to me that we have local service offices in many of those major cities mentioned and would therefore have real-world and real-time information. So I asked our offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and New York if they were seeing any more rats than normal this year.
The answer was a resounding “no” (well, how about a resounding “not yet?”) The overall response was that rats have always been, and always will be, a problem in any city. Ehrlich’s District Manager in New York said, “The subway and connected sewer system creates a haven for rat activity. There are also lots of very old structures above the subway lines that rats use as harborages.”
Our Chicago Regional Manager agreed, saying “There is always rat activity because of the size and environment of the city. On top of that, the city always has new construction which rodent activity. Existing buildings are getting up there in age. This is one aspect that makes the city so beautiful, but the reality is that there is constant rodent pressure.”
So my conclusion? The rats are still winning the race and outsmarting humans, but not loads faster than normal for this time of year. Let’s wait and see what happens over the next few months…
4 Comments
It’s time to have Rat Massacre!! I despise rats!! There are many rats in my neighbourhood too, and it seems the rats are getting braver and smarter too. They don’t take the poison baits easily. It’s sadder to see even the cats are afraid of them bcoz they have become enormous in size. So we need to work out some other solutions to control this.
They might have been smarter until you invented the RADAR mouse trap. You even made it on wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mousetrap
Now if the rodents learn to boot up a computer and read then you might need to go back to the drawing board.
Many home owners will try to deal with rats on their own. However using the services of a professional can save a lot of time and money in the long run. Rats can cause damage and if you do not know how to properly get rid of them you can cause damage getting rid of the rats. Many times the cost of hiring a professional will be much less than the cost of fixing the damage.
I did a Rat job last week for a house that backed onto a railway line in East London. I caught 6. They were nesting under the bath in some insulations. As soon as I entered the house I could smell them, the family had moved to a hotel until it was sorted, they had chewed through the floors, units, everywhere.