Tag: RATS
A new study about New York’s abundant wildlife has found that bugs are competing with rats for scraps of our food. It’s the “half glass full” scenario for any New Yorker, offering promising news if you hate rats, or, if you’re cynical, confirming the belief that the city is filthy and overrun by more critters […]
In a groundbreaking local study, scientists at Columbia University have conducted a survey of viruses carried by the rats of Manhattan. They tested the feces, urine, blood and tissue samples of 133 rodents. What they found was “shocking and surprising” even to pathogen experts. Not only did the rats carry scores of known food-borne illnesses (like […]
The number of 311 complaints for pests, specifically rats, is up by more than 5% in just a single year. Specifically, the number of pest complaints took a leap to 24,586 in fiscal 2013, from 22,300 the previous year. “This is a rat race we’re all losing,” Comptroller Scott Stringer managed to tell the press […]
For a while, YouTube was the best place to see wily rats interacting with the public. At one point, there was new footage emerging weekly, some of it more horrific than the next. But rest easy city dwellers, the rats of New York are finally getting the proper film treatment they deserve. According to Variety […]
The city is doubling up efforts to control increasingly severe rat infestations A new “rat reservoir pilot” program will attempt to make neighborhoods rat-proof by sealing up all its tiny holes and hiring extra exterminators. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s “rat expert” Caroline Bragdon told NPR how she sees the streets: “If you look really carefully, you […]
A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that a conditioned fear-triggering response to a particular stimuli can be transmitted from a rodent mother to her offspring. The experiment gave adult female rodents mild electric shocks while exposed to the scent of peppermint. The rodents became conditioned to exhibit a fear response […]
Six environmental groups have filed a petition asking for a state-wide ban on a class of rat poison that they say has been the cause of many wildlife deaths in New York City. According to post-mortem examinations by the State Department of Environmental Conservation, many animals — hawks, crows, deer, even cats and dogs — […]
The city is bolstering its rat extermination program starting next month, adding nine employees to the 45 city inspectors specializing in rodent infestations. A special pilot program has become necessary because heavily infested neighborhoods — West Harlem, Chinatown, the Lower East Side and the South Bronx – haven’t improved from attempts to poison and sterilize the […]
A recent neuroscience study at the University of Minnesota has shown that rats are capable of feeling regret. This was previously thought to be a uniquely human emotion, and yet, it is also experienced by furry creatures who live in the subway tracks and feed on discarded pizza crusts. Speaking with A. David Redish, Ph.D. and A. David Redish, […]
A mentally ill woman in San Francisco has been breeding and releasing untold numbers of rats into the city. NBC Bay Area reports: Police say that when they last checked in on the woman’s room at a residential hotel, she was living with 300 rats in deplorable conditions. “We found a small room that was completely […]
