Driving is on the rise in New York City
— but if New Yorkers think that they can avoid rats, they are in for a surprise.
For years, Libby Denault had taken her Prius to the same auto body shop in Brooklyn for tune-ups and other repairs. Out of nowhere, the "check engine" light kept coming on. The shop did a bunch of tests and couldn't figure out what it was.
Finally, they found the culprit. It was a rat. A rat that had chewed through a sensor wide that ended up costing her $700.
Rat bedding down under car hoods is nothing new for New Yorkers. Over the last two years, many of the city's auto body shops have seen drivers coming in with rodent-related issues.
Old cars, new cars, everyone is coming in with these rat problems. The recent Covid trend had New Yorkers buying cars may also share the blame. And more cars mean more nesting opportunities for rats.
And rat sightings have only gone up.
Between 2020 and 2021, the number of calls to the 311 hotline has increased as well. When things started shutting down, rats lost access to their usual food sources. Just like New Yorkers, rats also had to improvise and adapt to the pandemic.
Our habits determine how many rats are in our area; all the aromas coming from garbage bags and litter crumbs are not enough to get the ball rolling.
Michael H. Parsons, a research scientist at Fordham University and an expert on city rats, is a co-author of a 2020 study on increased hotline calls about rodents and says that the increased rat activity in cars and everywhere else is a symptom of broader social problems. “Our habits determine how many rats are in our area,” he said. “All those flavors coming out of garbage bags, the trash, and the crumbs — that’s enough to get the ball rolling.”
LONG STORY SHORT
“It’s about social city hygiene,” continued Dr. Parsons. “We need to change the way we think about how we take care of our neighborhoods and we will be able to get rid of the rats.”
