Two pest control giants looked at the same five boroughs and reached two different conclusions, and the rats have declined to say which one they agree with.
EAST VILLAGE, United States (Spintaxi) – New York City has been named the most rat-infested city in America and the third most rat-infested city in America within roughly 24 hours, leaving residents unsure whether to feel humiliated or merely embarrassed, and leaving the rats, by most accounts, completely unbothered.
The first verdict came from Terminix, which placed New York at the top of its national rodent ranking ahead of Los Angeles, based on the number of rodent-related calls the company receives in each city. The next day Orkin released its own Rattiest Cities list, which counted new residential rodent treatments and put Los Angeles first, Chicago second and New York third, unchanged from last year.
Two Rat Rankings, One City, Zero Agreement
Statisticians say the difference comes down to methodology. Terminix counts calls. Orkin counts treatments. Neither company counts rats, which experts describe as the single biggest gap in American rodent science.
“Counting the rats directly has been tried,” said Dr. Evelyn Marchetti, a rodent demographer at the Lower East Side Center for Urban Fauna. “In 2019 we sent a team of graduate students into a single block of Avenue B with clipboards. By the time they reached 3,000, the rats had started counting the students. One of the students is still in the study, but we no longer know on which side.”
Orkin’s national technical director, Dr. Shannon Sked, said in the company’s release that “there’s no single type of city or climate that’s immune to rodent pressure.” New Yorkers took this as reassurance, and in some households as a threat.
Rat Complaints Fall Citywide, Rise Where the Bars Are
Complicating the picture, city data cited in LatiNation’s look at the rankings show rodent sighting complaints to 311 fell about 23 percent, from 12,017 to 9,023, with 49 of 58 community boards reporting declines. Terminix entomologist Chad Gore called the drop “clear proof” that proper waste management works.
The East Village did not get the message. Complaints there rose 37.6 percent from January to July, from 218 to 300, and Broome Street posted a 400 percent increase over last year. Meanwhile Community Board 6, which covers Gramercy Park and Murray Hill, recorded the largest drop in the city at 54.75 percent.
Neighborhood analysts say the pattern is consistent with a classic young-adult migration. “Rats behave exactly like people in their twenties,” said Marchetti. “They start in Murray Hill because it feels safe and there are a lot of sports bars. Then they get a little confidence, they move to the East Village, and they start telling everyone they found a great place on Avenue A. Broome Street is the rodent equivalent of moving into a loft and starting a band.”
Leah Brodsky, a comic who hosts a Sunday open mic in a bar on Avenue A, said the falling complaint numbers should not be confused with falling rat numbers. “Complaints are down 23 percent because New Yorkers gave up,” she said. “My neighbor stopped calling 311 about the rat in our courtyard and started calling the rat Kevin. Kevin gets packages now. Kevin has a better credit score than I do.”
The Rats Respond
The Five Boroughs Rodent Association, a trade group that says it represents “the city’s oldest continuously operating residents,” issued a statement through a spokesperson who would only be photographed from behind a recycling bin. The statement, delivered on a shredded napkin and reassembled by this publication’s copy desk, read in part:
The Association notes with concern that two private companies have published contradictory assessments of our members without once requesting comment. We reject the label “rattiest.” We prefer “most established.” We would further remind the public that we were here before the subway, before the grid and before the first bagel, and we intend to be here after the last one. Regarding the reported 23 percent drop in complaints, the Association credits its members’ new policy of no longer appearing in front of people who are holding phones. Regarding Broome Street, the Association has no comment at this time, as the Broome Street chapter is no longer returning our calls.
Asked whether the Association preferred being ranked first or third, the spokesperson said its members were “frankly more upset about Houston cracking somebody’s top five,” and then disappeared into a storm drain mid-sentence.
The rats’ wounded dignity mirrors that of another animal facing a rough November press cycle: turkeys, who are reportedly unamused by Thanksgiving humor memes. “At least the turkeys only get one bad week a year,” said Brodsky. “Our rats get a bad week every October, from two different companies, and then they still have to go to work.”
Sealed Bins, a Vacant Rat Czar Post and a Long Wait
The Department of Sanitation says 70 percent of the city’s waste is already required to go into sealed containers, with full containerization projected by 2031. Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not name a new rat czar after Kathleen Corradi left the post, and he revoked the pest office created under former Mayor Eric Adams.
Residents of the East Village say the vacancy has been filled informally by a building superintendent on East Sixth Street, known on the block as “The Commissioner,” who walks his courtyard each night with a flashlight and a broom and has never once been ranked by a pest control company. “Terminix counts calls, Orkin counts treatments,” he said. “I count lids. If the lid is on, it’s a good night.”
Tomas Reyes, a comedian who works a late show in a Clinton Hill basement, said the city should stop chasing national rankings altogether. “We’re number one on one list and number three on the other,” he said. “That’s not a rat problem, that’s a Yankees problem. We keep finishing high and nobody is happy.”
What New Yorkers Can Do
Pest experts recommend that residents close trash bins tightly, avoid leaving food on stoops, seal gaps around pipes and stop throwing half a chopped cheese into the tree pit on the way home from the bar. Readers who want the rodent beat covered with appropriate seriousness can find more of it at Bohiney Magazine, where the city’s rats have been a running story for longer than either company has been keeping score.
For now, the Five Boroughs Rodent Association says it will accept whichever ranking the city chooses, on one condition. “Pick a number,” the spokesperson said, reappearing briefly from the same storm drain. “One, three, we don’t care. Just stop putting it on the news at dinnertime. Some of us are eating.”
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/