https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/new-york-finally-claims-a-small-victory-in-forever-war-on-rats-m7x230sg8 We haven't been able to take payment You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription. Update payment details Act now to keep your subscription We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription. Update payment details Your subscription is due to terminate We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account, otherwise your subscription will terminate. Update payment details More from The Times and The Sunday TimesTap 'Menu' and then 'Explore' Tap 'Menu' and then 'Explore' Dismiss Accessibility Links Skip to content --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times & The Sunday Times [ ]Search --------------------------------------------------------------------- Home UK World Comment Business & Money Sport Life & Style Culture Puzzles Magazines The Times & The Sunday Times + ------------------------------------------------------------- + Login + ------------------------------------------------------------- + Subscribe Log inSubscribe Home UK World Comment Business & Money Sport Life & Style Culture Puzzles Magazines --------------------------------------------------------------------- New York finally claims a small victory in 'forever war on rats' A pilot programme of replacing plastic bin bags with sealed containers, hailed by the mayor as 'trash revolution', is being credited with reducing rodent sightings Will Pavia , New York Monday February 03 2025, 12.10pm, The Times Mural of a rat wearing an "I love NY" shirt. A mural in New York, believed to be by Banksy, reflects the fact the city has struggled with a growing rat population for years ALAMY Will Pavia , New York Monday February 03 2025, 12.10pm, The Times Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, has been unwell and absent from public engagements for the past week. He faces a criminal trial on corruption charges in April, two months before he must face Democratic voters in a primary election for which a recent poll showed him running at 6 per cent support. There were even rumours that he was planning to resign. Yet there is now one bright spot for him. More than two years after he declared a "war on rats", some modest signs of victory have emerged. A pilot programme in Harlem, the northern neighbourhood in which the city decreed that all rubbish had to be placed in sealed containers and collected six days a week, is being credited with reducing rat sightings. Chart showing rat reproduction rates and a man pointing at the chart. Eric Adams, the mayor, established a pilot system for rubbish bins which has seen some positive progress ANGELA WEISS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Although the site of this success amounted to an area of fewer than ten blocks, there had been years in which the strenuous application of rodent poisons appeared to have had little effect. From 2014 to 2019, the city increased its use of poison, yet the rat population continued to boom, according to a study that seeks to track, for the first time, the state of play for rats in 16 cities. Advertisement Rats do not take part in census counts, so the 19 scientists behind the study sought to estimate whether their numbers were rising or falling using records of complaints from members of the public and reported sightings during municipal inspections. Washington appeared to suffer the sharpest growth in its rat population, followed by San Francisco, Toronto, New York and Amsterdam, according to the paper published in Science Advances. In total, 11 of the 16 cities appeared to be suffering an increase in rats and the scientists concluded that rat numbers were rising in places with a warming climate, a denser population, and less greenery. Rat on a New York City subway platform. Rats are a common sight on the subway GARY HERSHORN/GETTY IMAGES Yet although New York was still among the cities with a growing rat population, the researchers singled out the pilot programme in Harlem as one of a few "promising" signs of change. "It's a small scale area but it does seem to be making a measurable impact," said Jonathan Richardson, an urban ecologist at the University of Richmond, Virginia, who was the lead author of the study. The experiment in Harlem followed years in which a great many rodentologists suggested that New York would fare better if it did not present its rat populace with a nightly feast of rubbish, put out on the pavements in gnawable plastic bags -- a practice that can be traced to a 1968 strike by the city's bin men. As the strike went on, the city's metal bins overflowed. Walking through Manhattan's Lower East Side, the mayor, John Lindsay, was said to have passed piles of garbage that were sometimes chest high. Plastic bags were distributed and three years later the city approved a measure to use them instead of the old metal trash cans. The change would be "welcomed by New Yorkers whose sleep is disturbed by rattling cans", The New York Times reported at the time. It almost certainly welcomed by the city's rats as well. Advertisement Adams, who has claimed that he hates rats more than has any man in history, made plastic rubbish bags one of the targets of what he referred to as a "trash revolution". "When I go abroad and when I visit other countries, they are blown away that we still use plastic bags," he said last summer as he unveiled a newfangled device with wheels and a lid that looked, to amused British viewers, like a wheelie bin. These would be used by smaller residential buildings. Larger buildings would require larger bins that would need to be placed on the side of roads. These have been tried out in Harlem; if expanded citywide, they would take up about 150,000 parking spaces, according to a city study, arousing the wrath of New York's already disgruntled car owners. The city says a more recent study showed the new bins, as tried in Harlem, would potentially take up less room, displacing between 44,000 to 69,000 of New York's three million parking spaces. * Gigi Hadid has a New York rat problem. And so do I! Kathleen Corradi, New York's first "rat tsar" tasked with co-ordinating the city's efforts to reduce its rat population, said the plan was to expand the programme to a broader stretch of Harlem, confident that it will lead to fewer rat sightings. "We are very optimistic," she said. Meanwhile, after several days of containment, there have been several sightings of the mayor, who re-emerged on Thursday to attend a breakfast with religious leaders. "Who started the stupid rumour that I was stepping down on Friday?" he said. Advertisement Adams has made friendly overtures towards President Trump since his election in November, and this week there were reports that the Department of Justice was considering dropping the charges against him. The mayor did not address this or the question of his health in his speech, except to say that "last week was a scary week for me". But he did promise to remain in City Hall for a little while longer. "Every day they burn candles, they light incense, they say prayers, they do everything they can. 'Is he gone yet?'" he shouted. "No he's not!" US US news Related articles What happens when you get all of America's top rat people in a room? WILL PAVIA DISPATCH What happens when you get all of America's top rat people in a room? September 19 2024, 6.00am Will Pavia , New York Gigi Hadid has a New York rat problem. And so do I! Gigi Hadid has a New York rat problem. And so do I! December 18 2024, 12.01am Will Pavia , New York Correspondent PROMOTED CONTENT Previous article Co-pilot of Black Hawk in Washington crash named as former Biden aide Previous article Next article Modi joins freebie frenzy to win support in Delhi election Next article Back to top The Times & The Sunday Times Get in touch * About us * Contact us * Help * The Times Editorial Complaints * The Sunday Times Editorial Complaints * Place an announcement * Classified advertising * Display advertising * The Times corrections * The Sunday Times corrections * Careers More from The Times and The Sunday Times * The Times e-paper * The Sunday Times e-paper * The Sunday Times Wine Club * Times Print Gallery * The Times Archive * Times Crossword Club * Sunday Times Driving * Times+ * The Sunday Times Rich List * Travel * Good University Guide * Schools Guide * Newsletters * Best Places to Live * Best Places to Stay * Times Appointments * Podcasts * Times Money Mentor * Times Luxury * Sportswomen of the Year Awards * Best Places to Work * Puzzles More from News Corp * The Australian * Barron's * Dow Jones * Financial News London * Investor's Business Daily * Mansion Global * MarketWatch * Realtor.com * The Sun * Times Literary Supplement * The Wall Street Journal --------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) Times Media Limited 2025. 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