RAT Nos. Way Up: NY, Phila, DC, Chi, LA, Sea, From Gentrification, Construction, Mild Winters, Trash

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Wed May 22, 2019, 09:12 PM - Edit history (1)

- "Rats Are Taking Over New York City," the New York Times, May 22, 2019. *Excerpts: (Ick in the City!)

So many rats regularly lurk on a sidewalk in Brooklyn that it is the humans who avoid the rats, not the other way around. Not even cars are safe: Rats have chewed clean through engine wires. A Manhattan avenue lined with trendy restaurants has become a destination for foodies — and rats who help themselves to their leftovers. Tenants at a public housing complex in the South Bronx worry about tripping over rats that routinely run over their feet.

New York has always been forced to coexist with the four-legged vermin, but the infestation has expanded exponentially in recent years, spreading to just about every corner of the city. So many rats regularly lurk on a sidewalk in Brooklyn that it is the humans who avoid the rats, not the other way around. Not even cars are safe: Rats have chewed clean through engine wires.

"I’m a former Marine so I’m not going to be squeamish, but this is bad,” said Pablo Herrera, a 58-year-old mechanic who has counted up to 30 rats while walking on his block in Prospect Heights, just around the corner from the stately Brooklyn Museum...

One key reason rats seem to be everywhere? Gentrification. The city’s construction boom is digging up burrows, forcing more rats out into the open, scientists and pest control experts say. Milder winters — the result of climate change — make it easier for rats to survive and reproduce. And New York’s growing population and thriving tourism has brought more trash for rats to feed on.

But the onslaught of rats extends beyond New York: Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also confronting outbreaks. “Everywhere I go, rat populations are up,” said Robert Corrigan, a research scientist in New York who estimates that their numbers may have increased by as much as 15 to 25 percent in some cities.

The rodents are not only a nuisance and a blight on the quality of life, but also a health risk. A bacterial infection spread by rat urine, leptospirosis, killed a Bronx resident in 2017...

Read More, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rats-are-taking-over-new-york-city/ar-AABJp16?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[Tech]

1. Ben in the movie Willard comes to mind

[denbot]

2. Bubonic Plague anyone?

We are setting ourselves up for multi front disasters.

[Aristus]

6. Funny thing about Yersinia pestis, the organism that causes Black Plague:

It's incredibly virulent, which is why it killed so many people so quickly in the 14th Century. But it is a really wimpy microbe. Hit it with modern antibiotics, and it folds like a cheap card table.

[BigmanPigman]

3. After Hurricane Sandy the problem really incresed and I think

that was the start of incresed rat populations due to climate change. When the Seine flooded last year Paris had rats all over the place. A relative in DC said they are all over there too, and not just in the W House.

[Harker]

4. Anyone can see that there are more rats

in D.C.

The population may be at an all-time high.

[Kaiserguy]

5. The biggest rat of all

lives in the White House

[raccoon]

7. THANK YOU! Welcome to DU. nt