By Carol Tannenhauser
Monday, August 29, 2022
Partly cloudy, high 82 degrees.
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News
In February, 2022, West Side Rag told the story of colorful cubes of rat poison turning up in tree beds in the neighborhood and in Riverside Park, endangering the lives of children and pets. Two dogs nearly died after ingesting the poison, but, thankfully, were saved. Another was not so lucky; we got a tip last Saturday about a dog named Reggie who died from suspected rat poisoning — “Not from city-sponsored rat poison but vigilante-placed rat poison, [spread] haphazardly and in inappropriate locations,” said the tipster. “How can we combat this dangerous situation?”
City Councilmember Gale Brewer is beginning, as she always does, by collecting data. In April, her office surveyed the 5,248 tree beds in her Upper West Side district, using neighborhood volunteers. The survey showed that only about 5% of the beds, 255, have evidence of rat burrows. That’s still a bunch of burrows, but at least they can be targeted. The question is, who’s responsible for doing it?
Actually, no one, Brewer said, in an opinion piece in Gotham Gazette, on Friday. “The street tree bed ownership challenge is a bureaucratic quagmire. There’s no clear administrative body that handles the rat burrows in tree beds.
“Property owners are responsible for keeping the sidewalk adjacent to their property free of trash and debris; the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) is charged with keeping sidewalks safe and accessible for all and ticketing offenders,” Brewer explained. “The Department of Parks and Recreation maintains tree beds it plants with trees for two years after planting, after which property owners become responsible for maintaining the bed. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has a small budget for rat mitigation in tree beds, but mitigation in all tree beds is not in their purview.”
The rats, it would seem, have slipped through the cracks. Until the matter of administrative responsibility is settled, Brewer urges “the vigilantes going after rats on the Upper West Side [to] stop taking matters into their own hands.”
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Apparently, it’s not “just like riding a bicycle…” “Ambulances have been summoned to Central Park’s famed Wollman Rink and the nearby area at least 11 times in the 10 weeks since it opened on June 16 as a seasonal roller-skating venue,” the New York Post reported. “Seven people were rushed to the hospital, according to the FDNY.”
“The New York City Department of Sanitation has announced the return of its ‘Trucks of Art,’ program, offering the opportunity for artists to creatively paint collection trucks, creating colorful art that inspires recycling or honors Sanitation Department essential workers, ‘New York’s Strongest,'” silive reported. “Those interested in applying should email a brief description of their idea with design mock-ups and an explanation of why they’d like to be selected, along with contact information and a short biography, to TrashTalk@dsny.nyc.gov.”
Have a great week — and watch out for rat poison! If you suspect your child or pet has been exposed, call poison control immediately (212-POISONS). If you see loose blocks, call 311 or contact Brewer’s office at 212-873-0282.
As people have pointed out before, trying to kill the rats burrow by burrow is a losing game. The only way to reduce the rat population is to reduce their available food sources, and that means getting garbage off the sidewalks. The city is working on rolling out a plan for trash containerization that would take plastic trash bags off the curb and put them in large, metal containers where the rats can’t get at it. Let your local politicians know you want containerization on your block! https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/08/22/nyc-to-contractors-we-want-to-get-serious-about-trash-containerization/
Rats can climb in dumpsters and those new garbage cans the city has been using. See rats climbing up them every morning in Lincoln center area. The restaurants are the biggest problem The Smith and Bar Boulud put about a dozen small dumpsters out every night around 11pm on West 63rd that are not picked up to 5-6 am from a private vender this is the main food source for the rats. The residential garbage that is on the side walk for less then 4 hours before city pick up is really not an issue.
Rats are quite intelligent along with being excellent climbers.
Have seen more than a few trash cans both in front of residential or commercial buildings with rats scampering around and in said containers.
Only way to prevent this is well known, said containers must have tight fitting lids. Most residential or commercial buildings stuff much as they can per container so lids rarely close securely.
@John. Your comments intrigue me. 60s vs 80s seem to have completely different public sanitation systems.
Are the dumpsters you reference unlidded? If no, how do rats get into closed/lidded/sealed dumpsters near you?
There are several unlidded ineffective dumpsters in the W80s/90s/100s (near NYCHA buildings) which rats obviously access. I don’t see the point of a dumpster without lid!
Residential garbage on my block is routinely out on the sidewalk for 16 hours, not less than 4 as near you. Most of our block puts the bags out ~4pm (4pm+ is legally allowed) and it is picked up around 7-8am. The overnight bags are a rat smorgasburg. Compost bins seem to have helped a bit. Most of the block is brownstone with no or part time supers. So it doesn’t seem realistic to set it out later. Maybe if it were picked up earlier (like 10pm!) that would help reduce the feeding frenzy.
Yes the restaurant dumpsters have to much in them to close lids. And my building doesn’t put garbage out to the morning of pick up .
“The Department of Parks and Recreation maintains tree beds it plants with trees for two years after planting, after which property owners become responsible for maintaining the bed.” That seems pretty clear.
Gale’s tree bed burrow data seems off. My block, which is literally around the corner from her office, has ~30% of tree beds with burrows. The community garden on 87th, also near her office, is full of rat burrows. Though open til dusk, the garden is unusable starting late afternoon because there are rats running wild all around you.
I tried posting to a couple NYC agencies (NYFD & EPA)but never get a response, who is reponsilble for fire hydrants and the iron protective posts on either side. One of our protective post has rusted thru entirely and is falling over, never mind some new paint !
DEP. call 311 and report it but it won’t be a high priority as long as the hydrant itself works.
A tree bed burrow seems almost containable…I agree the solution has to be to the larger problem. But for a few months of relief and a break in the hyper local nesting/breeding cycle, it is great when, say, all the holes in a pocket park or all the tree beds on a block can be treated. For a tree bed: a tarp with a hole for the tree trunk, wrapped around the trunk like a wrap skirt with weighted edges; some CO2 pellets down the holes; wait 20 minutes, and fill in the holes with soil after removing the tarp. No? Non toxic, relatively merciful to any resident creatures (they’ll get sleepy and not wake up). I’m not an expert – please explain why resident owners/ managers can’t do or have exterminators do this?
Many posting seem to make assumption rats are nesting in tree beds. Maybe yes, but also it can also be they have a network of tunnels that provide travel between other exit/entrance points.
Rats are determined little buggers, especially if they know food is to be found. Have seen trees killed by rats gnawing up from inside to get around planting beds covered in chicken wire and gravel.
If there are any cracks or holes in gutter near or alongside tree bed, rats will simply exploit those points of exit or entry.
To irradicate rat nesting places it is necessary to remove all instances of infestation. For tree beds, a safe and effective approach is to flood rat holes with water. The rats will drown if they remain in their dens. Rats in the den will try to escape and can be dealt with if they emerge. After treatment, the hole needs to be filled with soil. Wet and muddy soil does not make for suitable nesting dens. A side benefit of this approach is the tree gets watered.
People need to clean up their properties, and keep trash contained and bagged. City streets need to be cleaned more often. The restaurant sheds need to go.
Rats just aren’t confined to tree beds, there is an entire world underground in NYC that is their playground.
https://gothamist.com/news/man-who-fell-through-sidewalk-sinkhole-pit-rats-files-lawsuit
Hawks and owls prey on rats, so by poisoning rats, you kill these birds of prey as well. That is exactly how Barrie the Owl died last year.
Barrie was hit by a car driven by a parks dept worker.
here is an article on the lethal levels of rat poison in her system https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10017507/Central-Parks-owl-Barry-lethal-levels-rat-poison-body-hit-truck.html
and the reason was that he had rat poison in his system which affected his judgement and reflexes. An autopsy was done by the Wild Bird Fund which confirmed that.
On 109th, the rats are out of control. There are outside dumpsters with heavy metal lids, but the rats have clearly chewed through them, I don’t know how. There is some weird foam that has been attempted to put into the cracks to no avail. The rats run from cars, to tree burrows to the dumpsters, all evening, night and into early morning. Yes, they also populate garbage bags when they are out, but the bags don’t need to be out – the rats still are. The only thing that worked is ONE TIME, after complaining and complaining and complaining, the city came out and put down some poison in one location…and never returned. There is a community garden on 111th that gets rat control EVERY MONTH. Why is 109th undeserving of rat control? The city has resources to study poison vigilantes but none to do something about the rats.
If more buildings signed up for curbside pickup of food scraps we could make a dent in the rat problem. The brown bins seal and are designed to deter rats from climbing on them. The participation in the program on UWS is very low. Bug your landlord, coop/condo board and managing agents to sign up here nyc.gov/curbsidecomposting.
I was about to write the same thing. My wife & I and another couple were walking down 109th from Amsterdam to Broadway Saturday and it was downright scary how many rats we saw. I could not believe it.
Right about 109th Street, north side, between Broadway and Amsterdam (at least). I saw more than twenty the other evening, every collection of garbage bags had them. You see the bags moving. And they don’t move until you are right on top of them, which is disturbing. A couple of weeks ago I saw groups of little rats, but they seem all grown up now.
If we could get composting back, that would also help. Those brown city compost containers were pretty much rat- proof. Take compost out of the regular garbage, there’s nothing left for rats to eat.
Clean up absolutely but we must also do something to slow or end the reproductive cycle. Poison is just too dangerous. Those who place poison ..vigilantes.. if you will need to be fined for doing so. It’s bad enough when dogs or other animals are impacted but wait until some kid picks one of those attractive green items up.
Construction of which we have a lot is always preceded by demolition and that means that rats are dislodged from their old homes and they fan out. These sites are supposed to be fully treated to exterminate the rats but the cit doesn’t even enforce zoning laws so I doubt the City enforces that requirement.
This situation is not inevitable. It was under control when I moved here almost 25 years ago…somebody was doing something right then. Hmmmm maybe the City was more interested in doing its job than figuring out how to make developers more money. Maybe we could turn that around.
I have had a rose garden at 54th and 11th Ave. for 20 years and I have always…always been fighting rats. I have never used poison, but I have done everything else to turn oust them. My favorite tactic is to put a rushing hose down rat holes, hoping to (I’m sorry) kill nests of little ratlings. However, what usually happens is that one or two, maybe three rats race out of adjacent holes.
It’s been an endless unsuccessful effort over all these years. I’ve tried dried ice and I’ve tried smoke. Nothing works. The Parks Department has come several times and done their thing, but I just continue to run the hose down the hole. There is a soft ball/base ball field next to my garden so I have a lot of foul balls in my garden. I used to throw them over the fence the next day, but I’ve recently been shoving softballs down in the rat holes. They’re just the right size to slow down a rat, but it is not a solution! Alas…
The rat population would be significantly reduced if we had mandatory composting. During his campaign, Mayor Adams promised to expand composting, but he has gone back on his word. We’ve been unsuccessfully trying to control the rat problem for decades, but no matter how much poison is put all over our neighborhoods, food waste in the garbage will continue to feed the rats. And our streets will continue to STINK! For our health and safety and quality of life, we need mandatory composting.
Unpopular opinion: Can we leave the rats alone? They’re God’s creatures too. Fellow mammals. We don’t go around harassing and poisoning the squirrels so why the rats?
Rats spread disease. Do you not know that?
So do humans!
My condolences to Reggie’s people. That’s a hard loss.
How long will it be before a toddler snatches one of these up and chews on it?
Compost bins are tricky to lock – you have to lift the lid while unlocked and hold down firmly while locking. When I deposit my food scraps I check all the bins and there is always at least one not locked properly.