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Oh, rats: Boston unveils new rat-attack plan; four parts of the city are particularly targeted, but residents, businesses called on to mend their slobby, food-spilling ways
By adamg on Wed, 07/17/2024 - 11:56am
Mayor Wu today announced Boston's latest rat plan, in a series of rat plans that now date back more than a century, under which several city departments will better coordinate their anti-vermin efforts and businesses and residents will be asked to do their part to put a lid on rats - by putting a lid on their rat-enticing trash and even cleaning their barbecue grills after each use.
Also in the plan: A de-emphasis on bait traps that use poisons that kill not only rats but the raptors and other animals that eat them, from hawks and owls to cats. Instead, the plan, based on the work of Robert Corrigan, an urban rodentologist who spent months in Boston studying our ratty ways, focuses on reducing the one thing that really makes rat colonies explode in size: Food - from garbage in easily shredded plastic bags to morsels dropped through the slats of park benches by people enjoying a sandwich for lunch to those uncleaned barbecue grills.
Storing trash in unprotected plastic bags is a norm in some areas of the city, which is a key factor in the rodent population. Dr. Corrigan also establishes that the No. 1 driver of rat populations in all cities, including Boston, is the food refuse dynamic, often disposed of in plastic bags. The report outlines that the City in partnership with residents, business owners and property owners changing this behavior will be critical in ultimately reducing the rodent population, and it needs to be done consistently throughout the city for a sustained period of time.
He added:
During the warm weather months, nothing will draw rats to building perimeters faster than the odors of fresh bar-b-que smoke and molecules.
Although all city neighborhoods report rats, the plan will try to hit rats - and improper food and trash storage - hardest in four areas of the city identified by Corrigan, in part through the prevalence of 311 rat reports: Ward 3 (Downtown, Chinatown, North End, South End, and Haymarket); Allston (Rat City)/Brighton; Back Bay/Beacon Hill and an area covering Roxbury and parts of Dorchester.
But Corrigan also called for a rapid rat response team to be ready to leap into action anywhere "rat emergencies" pop up across the city.
And he added there is only so much city workers can do - reducing the Boston rat hordes will take effort by residents and businesses, in particular restaurants. And people just have to stop being such complete slobs. During a March tour of Boston streets, he wrote:
It was very apparent that food garbage in both residential and commercial spaces of the various areas of city visited was copious in all versions: mostly jettisoned plastic bags lying on sidewalks and curbs, improper dumpster practices, the copious use of cheap plastic garbage cans, and litter baskets permitting easy access to rats during the night. It can't be over-emphasized that the Boston (any big city) garbage conundrum must be addressed to have any realistic impact on the future of Boston's city rat population. ...
All rat infestations were strongly associated with nearby food trash occurring either in dumpsters, residential flimsy plastic cans, or via simple plastic bags dropped randomly on the curb areas for pickup, which all could be easily reduced or eliminated with some modicum of basic attention to community sanitation or property-level pride.
Corrigan's plan also calls for making areas less attractive for rats to burrow in - to the point of increasing the amount of mulch used in planting beds in city parks, because mulch increases the temperature of the ground below the plantings, such as rose bushes, which rats love, to intolerable levels.
When rats show up somewhere and cause a problem, though, Corrigan's plan calls for studying new techniques in rat killing, including one in use in Somerville - a box that senses when a rat has entered to grab some tasty bait and is then electrocuted. He also said pumping carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide into rat burrows works well and doesn't harm other creatures. Boston at one point used carbon dioxide - generated by dry ice - but then the substance was declared a federally controlled rodenticide, which dramatically increased the cost and inconvenience of getting it from the one local distributor of "Rat Ice."
In addition to mulch, Corrigan wrote Boston parks can do other things:
Landscaping factor: shrubs that are evergreen all year and are allowed to grow downward to the floor to form cave-shapes provide ideal houses for rats as they burrow below and always remain hidden. Bushes in high rat neighborhoods should be vase-shaped either from original design of the bush, or by keeping a cave-shaping bush (e.g., Yew, Boxwoods) pruned up off the ground to allow for easy visual inspection.
The Parks Department should also empty trash receptacles - or removed them completely - at nightfall, he wrote.
Corrigan added that while rats are high on the ick factor, they "currently do not pose a high public health threat to Bostonians" according to the Boston Public Health Commission. However, all that burrowing means "rats do significant damage to sidewalks, roads, drainage systems and sewer, and to supportive slabs and retaining walls of all types."
In a statement, Wu said:
Boston takes pride in distinguishing our city through delivering exceptional basic city services for safe and clean streets, beautiful public spaces, and responsive and accessible city government. We’re working to make Boston a home for everyone. Except for rats.
The plan sets up yet another possible conflict between one-time allies Wu and Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) because the plan calls for continuing the current work-group approach - in which key rat agents in several city departments gather to map out a plan of action - rather than acceding to Flynn's demand for a citywide rat czar.
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Comments
Couple of notes
Corrigan briefly mentions one of the few advantages of lots of rats: They eat cockroaches.
Also, if you click on the link to his report (under "spent months in Boston") above, you'll notice it's titled as Part II. Part 1 of his report, which consists in large part of photos, is not yet online; when it gets uploaded, I'll add a link.
Corrigan briefly mentions one
When I lived in Chicago, the saying was "Every building has either cockroaches or rats," i.e., if you see cockroaches in your apartment, that means you don't have rats.
Fighting rats in one
Fighting rats in one neighborhood is like fighting climate change in one city.
The report has a plethora of workable ideas as one would expect from PhDs and other Ds. This is our best tool, if we don't want to use an actual safe and effective but federally controlled rodenticide.
Fundamental misundestanding
You say this, which implies that a specific product is not being used because it is a federally approved pesticide:
which is obviously in response to this in the story:
Federal regulation is necessary for lawful use of a product as pest control. There is one approved product, made by 1 company and distributed by a limited number of vendors, which uses dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to kill rodents. It's very likely no different than ordinary dry ice produced and sold locally by a handful of dry ice vendors but you cannot lawfully take regular dry ice and use it to kill rats.
If a product becomes unreasonably expensive and difficult to obtain, then a decision has to be made weighing the costs and benefits of using that product. The decision not to use that specific product is not because of the fact that the product is federally regulated.
Obviously it is better and
Obviously it is better and cheaper to hire rat PhDs and landscape bushes
Stuff like this creates Republicans as well as rats
I was curious so Googled around this subject a little bit, and found this:
https://www.wcvb.com/article/dry-ice-given-the-cold-shoulder-for-rodent-...
Basically, if you throw a block of dry ice in the punch bowl at a kids' birthday party, that's perfectly legal because dry ice is not a controlled substance.
But if you throw that same block of dry ice in a rat burrow, it's considered a pesticide, and pesticides must be listed and approved as such by the EPA, because the EPA has regulatory authority over all pesticides, and it is the intention of the use that matters here and not just the substance.
This makes sense to a point: if people were pouring gallons of acetone or bleach down ratholes, I could see why that would be of interest even though anybody can buy them at the grocery store. But by the logic being applied here, it would seem that water would require EPA approval if you stuck a garden hose down the same hole, even though a thousand gallons of rainwater will run down that hole over the next year either way.
The objective result of this decision was most likely worse for people and the environment, as instead of a completely safe substance that dissipates harmlessly within minutes, we continued dumping God knows how many tons of rat poison on the streets that killed other animals, is probably less humane to the rats, and was much less effective to boot.
This kind of thing is *exactly* what's wrong with so much of our government: After a century-plus of accumulating rules and agencies and regulations, we regular have systems that were initially put in place to promote X, that now actively oppose X.
Not American Republicans in this case.
Not American Republicans in this case. The owner of Bell Labs was a center-right to hard-right politician in Taiwan. He's still a citizen of Taiwan but he runs as an Independent now which I'm guessing means he now is on the extreme-right. Terry Gou is the rat-bastard who deprived of of a low cost and environmentally friendly solution to our rat problem.
What about water?
If the city had been putting garden hoses down the rat holes and using water to drown or drive out the rats, and if some company did the necessary regulatory capture to get water declared a pesticide, and then registered their own brand of water with the EPA. And then started pressure on state officials to shut the city’s program down unless the city buys the special branded water, would you be making the same argument?
Because that’s pretty much what happened here. Carbon dioxide is a ubiquitous naturally occurring substance.. less common than water, but not by a mile. What we are seeing in action here is parasitic late stage capitalism.
[edit: I see that poster “the snob” made the same argument before I posted]
Good Luck
Good luck on getting the public to clean up after themselves and deal with trash properly.
You'd have to be living under a rock for the past 30+ years to know rats LOVE food and we need to keep it clean to keep the rats under control.
But no one does it. Thus the problems we have today.
Outreach isn't the issue. Start hitting people in the wallet with fines on a scale for improper trash disposal. Its the only way to get people to listen.
Every one of those outdoor
Every one of those outdoor dining shacks are disgusting and never get properly cleaned. They put them in and theres no way to street sweep around them or cleaning under for all summer it is rat buffets.
Like everything
The worst offenders are the same people who don't care in the first place so outreach only goes so far. (Same story with people who don't pick up after their dog.)
Sometimes it's a landlord who can't be bothered to keep the trash area neat. Fines help there. Other times is a dirtbag occupant who doesn't care. Sucks because all it takes is one person in a unit or block to leave trash out and everyone will get the rats no matter how much of an effort is made by others.
This problem is old as Boston itself.
The problem with that
Is that poor people litter, because they've never owned property, so they have no pride.
You have to solve poverty before you can tackle rats.
Seriously?
My experience is that rich people litter because they expect some poor person to do the dirty work for them.
I think the problem is that people litter. Another problem is the dumbass bags everywhere multiple times per week system that no sane rat control project would ever tolerate.
Oh, rich people do it too
I just didn't call them out. But I could have.
Cough, cough, General Electric.
Now, now
It's not exactly littering if you contaminate an entire river.
It's the lack of landlord pride
When a landlord doesn't care about their building and tenants, the tenants don't care much about cleanliness either. And you get rats and bugs.
Oddly enough
The two always find each other.
Management Companies
Don't forget the issue is also management companies. Most places in Boston aren't managed by their owner (aka the landlord). They are managed by management companies.
These companies could not give a shit about anything more than if the rent check has cleared.
I had an issue with a building next to mine several years ago where residents were dropping bags of trash off a third floor rear porch in hopes to get them into the bins. Of course it didn't work so the bag would split and there was trash (and rats!) all over the place.
I called and called city ISD about this and they would come and issue a ticket, but the problem persisted... for months. I'd call again, they'd get another ticket and it would still happen.
Finally we got so sick of the ever growing pile of smelly trash in the backyard that we looked up who actually OWNS the building. It was some old lady in Saugus who was 88. I guess the property was her husbands before he died and was managed by a management company. From talking with her daughter, we found out that the management company wasn't notifying them of anything and just paying the tickets and not clamping down on residents for the trash issue. The owner had no idea this was going on.. and we were told by the daughter that they would be selling the property.
My point: Management companies do not care as long as the check clears. This is why I mention below about fees on a sliding scale. These management companies ignore warnings and just pay tickets will have some hefty fines to pay. They will have no other choice than to pay attention or pay a higher fine next time.
What a dumb bigoted comment!!!
Who is it that cleans up low income neighborhoods forsaken by the city? The residents. Those who own and those who rent.
Then once those neighborhoods are cleaner and safer, gentrifiers see a good investment and move in. This drives up rents and house prices and drives out the people who put the work into improving the neighborhood in the first place!!
This American Life had a
This American Life had a whole episode about this called Rats. The problem is lack of proper trash receptacles. Look at how trash is disposed of in cities like Barcelona. Every couple blocks there is a huge dumpster thing everyone throws their trash and recyling into. Rats can't get into it. No more plastic bags ripped open on the sidewalks.
They tried this in NYC but selfish, lazy drivers fought against it because some of these trash receptacles would take the place of parking spaces. So, like everything else, it comes back to car drivers ruining cities.
Yes, I was thinking the same
Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Was in Barcelona in the spring and noticed as well. They have big thick receptacles for trash. I never saw a rat there or garbage bags on the sidewalk.
To further this
To further this statement
We need to do away with trash fees which would help.
I've said this before and I'll say it here. If you make it easier and cheaper for people to throw away trash, it will happen. But $30 dollars here, $50 dollars there for different stickers for pick up of some items. Then of course the fees every quarter for trash pick up.
Adding trash bins everywhere would help but the problem is because we charge fees for trash pick up or limits on trash (*glares at Malden*), people dump trash in public bins to avoid that. Malden's public trash bins are far and few between and are overflowing every day because they have "pay as you throw" trash system.
WE NEED TO STOP LIMITING TRASH DISPOSAL.
Trash is everyone's issue.
I say this much (and court scorn)
I've been walking through Bay Village recently. It blows my mind that people put their trash out for collection in plastic bags. That's feeding time for rodents.
And yes, it's a dense neighborhood, full of houses that cannot even hold the smallest of trash cans, but this is where Swirrly would point out that in urban Italy, that have communal trash cans that make for easier collection along with discouraging rats.
Then again, New York City recently mandated trash bins. If they can do it, so can we!
North End, too
But Bay Village and the South End would probably be the best place to organize a pilot for this as they have shown themselves to be open to community-minded concepts such as banning space savers.
Beacon Hill might also work. From what I've seen in Chinatown with the city robot bins, many residents already think that they have this system.
What are “city robot bins”?
.
We used to call them "trash cans"
But then the city put in "smart" ones that are solar powered so that they can call for help when full and be ignored like a 311 bike lane parking complaint.
The ones with all the ads on them. See here.
I regularly see people stuffing the ones in Chinatown with household garbage. Not sure if they are confused, refusing to pay for services, or if their landlords told them to do it.
Ahhh. Thanks for the explanation.
I was imagining roaming robots that you could request on an app to come get your garbage for you.
Those plastic bins are a step in the right direction but..
in Somerville the rats just chew through the plastic. All of our cans have holes in the bottoms and tops that they chew through. It might as well be plastic bags on the sidewalk, we have rats everywhere. It seems large metal containers are really the solution.
Aren't most of these
Aren't most of these neighborhoods specifically told to not use bins? At least Beacon Hill and Back Bay, to the best of my memory, are specifically directed to put out bags. Maybe I'm smarting from the line "modicum of basic attention to community sanitation or property-level pride", but I think this is caused by city policy, not by every resident in these neighborhoods being a huge slob.
City of Boston and MBTA
Might think about a putting a similar plan in effect to eradicate the annoying proliferation of pigeons (aka “flying rats”) as well.
When pigeons start biting people in their houses ...
They will be a higher priority.
A different sort of problem
They leave unsanitary waste throughout the subway system—underfoot, on benches, on escalators (including handrails) and outdoors. Pigeon droppings are the source of several diseases.
Okay
When these diseases become problematic in our population, pigeons will also become a priority.
https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/pigeon.page
Even those with compromised immune systems have a lot more to worry about from other pathogens in our environment not associated with the occupational risks of cleaning up pigeon droppings:
(side note: I have been advocating to make histoplasmosis a reportable disease in MA as the CDC endemic range maps are based on extremely dated information and "lack of reported cases".)
I live in Allston
first step is to stop finding the term Rat City cute. It's a problem. One of the issues I see, besides multi tenant buildings still being allowed to use bags with no repercussions for putting them out too early, is the land owned by the city. I live on the street that is above the parking lots next to Blanchards and adjacent to that lot off of Harvard Ave. That high wall has a strip of land about 5 feet wide that's owned by the city. We and the other buildings on our street have a fence on our side of the 5 foot strip and most keep their garbage receptacles there (we have dumpsters, some have sheds with barrels that aren't brought out on garbage day). It's a rat superhighway - they travel from property to property down to the restaurants on Brighton. No traps or remediation at all is done on the land by the city. The only time they come out is if there's an 311 complaint about a dead rat, killed while leaving city land and then they just fine the adjacent building. Same with Ringer Park. Go where they live! I would bet there's warrens all down that strip of land. We have traps on our side but why go there when there's food literally on the sidewalk - just have to traverse our parking lot to get it. I would love for plastic garbage bags to be banned but I'd also like the city to manage their own properties instead of fining the buildings next door.
I live in a four-apartment
I live in a four-apartment building in Brighton. We tenants are supposed to put our trash and recycling in bins with lids, which I do.
Every so often the management company randomly removes a bin or two, and I have to tell them to put it back. Otherwise the bins get too full for the lids to close.
When it's time to put the trash out for collection, the person they send sometimes rearranges the trash, so there are then two or three bins on the sidewalk whose lids won't close, and an empty bin behind the building. This makes no sense to me: it's extra work for him, as well as attracting rats.
On the topic of public trash receptacles..
A couple of years ago I called multiple departments at City Hall in an effort to get a public trash receptacle placed on Harrison Avenue. I was eventually connected with someone who suggested I might ask the owners of area businesses to sponsor a waste basket! That was the extent of the City’s interest in maintaining public safety and sanitation at that time.