New York is making rat infestation an issue for construction site managers across the city

2022-11-04T09:00:00-04:00

The New York City Council passed the Rat Action Plan Thursday, a package of four bills that set new pest management standards. Among other measures, it will require applicants for certain construction work permits in the city to certify that a licensed exterminator was retained to effectively treat the premises for rodent extermination.

The city is currently enduring a spike in its world-renowned rodent population, as rat sightings in all five boroughs have gone up by a total of 71% when compared to last year. Outdoor dining sheds are at least partially to blame, but the city’s public sanitation standards and its now record-breaking number of construction sites are also contributors, prompting the city to put forward the new plan.

“New construction is still booming, anytime you cut open the ground you usually open nests of rats, that would really be a big part of it, as far as sightings,” a local pest control specialist explained to the Daily News recently. The new requirement only applies to job sites in “designated rat mitigation zones” and will take effect in April. An annual report from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will chart the success of the efforts and be made publicly available no later than November 1st of the same year.

Study Finds NY Rats Have Alarming Diseases

2014-10-15T14:32:00-04:00

Recently, a team of pathogen hunters at Columbia University...conducted a survey of the viruses and bacteria in Manhattan’s rats, the first attempt to use DNA to catalog pathogens in any animal species in New York City [...] Although the scientists examined just 133 rats, they found plenty of pathogens. Some caused food-borne illnesses. Others, like Seoul hantavirus, had never before been found in New York. Others were altogether new to science.

New York's notorious rat problem is just one of the many complex human-animal interactions that can lead to disease outbreaks. Ebola, which has decimated West Africa and is now appearing in the US, likely spread to humans from contact with infected primates. Avian flu (H5N1) spreads from contact with contaminated birds, with the most deadly strains for humans likely coming from exposure to infected domesticated birds. Similarly, swine flu comes from contact with pigs. And the bubonic plague, famously thought to have come from rats, is now thought to have spread from fleas carried by said rats.

All this shows that human habitations are actually within a complex mesh of interactions with other non-human agents, many of which pose grave or even fatal health risks. As Dr. Lipkin, director of the rat study, told the NY Times: “I think people are going to have to start paying attention to this.”

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New York is making rat infestation an issue for construction site managers across the city

Study Finds NY Rats Have Alarming Diseases