“Rats love big cities, but the feeling is not mutual”

Boston’s latest battle plan in its long-standing war against rats aims to create a widespread starvation to slowly starve and eventually eradicate the rodent population.

This strategy differs from the city’s previous approach of killing rats, and is one of the key recommendations in a long-awaited city-commissioned report released Wednesday by renowned city rodentologist Dr. Bobby Corrigan.

The report provided a roadmap for the city’s new rodent control action plan and was released at the same time. Mayor Michelle Wu announced the plan, and her office described it as a “coordinated, cross-agency initiative to control Boston’s rodent population and maintain an excellent quality of life” for residents and visitors.

“We are working hard to make Boston a home for everyone – except rats,” Wu said in a statement. “Our rodent action plan, based on this data-driven report, will guide our actions in our neighborhoods.”

The report highlights several causes and effects of the rodent infestation, including poor garbage prevention, storage and disposal. Corrigan said that during visits to various neighborhoods, he saw overflowing garbage containers, plastic garbage bags lying on sidewalks and trash baskets that gave the rats easy access at night.

Human behavior contributes significantly to the problem, Corrigan wrote, citing the dynamics of food waste, or the disposal of food that is still fit for human consumption, as the main cause of rat populations in all cities, including Boston.

“It cannot be emphasized enough that the garbage problem in Boston (and in every major city) must be addressed to have a realistic impact on the future of Boston’s city rat population,” Corrigan wrote.

According to Dion Irish, the city’s director of operations, the report’s findings include recommendations that reinforce the city’s efforts to date to deprive rats of the food they need to reduce their population.

“Rats love big cities, but the feeling is not mutual. That’s why we must always be vigilant and strive to keep improving,” Irish said. “I don’t think we’ll ever completely eradicate rats, but I think we can certainly reduce populations to the point where people no longer encounter them in their everyday activities.”

The report focuses on Boston’s hotspot neighborhoods where rats are most prevalent and where the city should develop targeted rat control strategies: Downtown, Chinatown, North End, South End, Haymarket, Allston/Brighton, Back Bay and Beacon Hill, Dorchester (primarily South Dorchester), and Roxbury.

It also describes various approaches that can be taken in locations where infestations are most severe, including parks, older masonry sewer systems, public housing authority complexes, and construction sites.

Corrigan advocates a move away from rodenticides and other rat poisons that are traditionally placed in bait boxes in city parks and have been proven to pose a danger to wildlife and domestic animals that ingest the poison or to rats that have eaten it.

John Ulrich, deputy director of environmental services in the Inspection Services Department, said the report takes a strong stand against second-generation anticoagulants, which the city began phasing out last year.

The city will continue to use lethal control methods, Ulrich said, citing the success with carbon monoxide. But Boston cannot escape the problem, he said, because rats reproduce particularly well.

“Rodents only reproduce when you give them less comfort,” Ulrich said. “You reduce their shelter and food, which in turn reduces the size of their litters and their ability to reproduce.”

Ulrich will lead the city’s pest control efforts as part of the multi-agency effort recommended in Corrigan’s report.

He was appointed permanent chair of a rodent action plan working group that includes the city’s Cabinet of Works, Inspection Services, Public Works Department, Boston Public Health Commission, Parks and Recreation, Boston Housing Authority, Boston 311, and Water and Sewer Commission, among others.

Corrigan’s recommendation that the city stick with its cross-departmental approach to pest control rather than create a new department drew criticism from City Councilman Ed Flynn, who has long advocated for a separate department.

Flynn also criticized what he said was the Wu administration’s decision to go against the report’s recommendation to consider hiring a rat czar, something he also championed, citing the City of New York’s approach.

Tania Del Rio, commissioner of inspection services, said the city chose to assign Ulrich the duties of rat czar under a different title rather than hire someone new.

After the report was released, Flynn sent an email to the mayor, her chief of staff and political director, obtained by the Herald, expressing disappointment that he had not been included in the process.

He also criticized the Boston Public Health Commission, which was quoted in Corrigan’s report as saying that rats do not currently pose a major threat to residents’ public health, for “downplaying the impact this significant quality of life problem has on neighbors across the city.”

“When I hear about a rat in a child’s bed, it’s clear to me that it’s a public health emergency,” Flynn said.

The report also ruled out another push by the City Council for rodent birth control, but the city is not ruling out that option.

“We haven’t taken that off the table,” Irish said.

Originally published: July 17, 2024 at 5:57 pm