NYC unleashes rat death squad to gas vermin with carbon monoxide, bury them in tree-pit graves
They're on a mission to put the city's vermin problem to bed.
The Adams administration is unleashing an $877,000 rat death squad to find the rodents, gas them to death with carbon monoxide and bury the rodents hiding out in and around the Big Apple's 600,000 tree beds.
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5 Francis Fernandez, an exterminator for NYC Parks (left) and NYC Mayor Eric Adams (center) during a demonstration after the announcement of new rat mitigation team.
Michael Nagle
The Street Tree Bed Rat Mitigation program will include a specialized team of a dozen exterminators, park workers and others with inspecting tree beds and deploying carbon monoxide inside rat burrows – where 'rodent squatters' will meet their ends with their tunnels turned to graves, officials said at a news conference on Sunday.
'By cleaning up trash and hiring a team of experts to clear out burrows while caring for our trees, we are reclaiming public space, fighting rats, and improving quality of life for all New Yorkers,' Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. 'Our administration continues to build on the work we are doing to end the dominance of trash and rats on our streets.'
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5 'By cleaning up trash and hiring a team of experts to clear out burrows while caring for our trees, we are reclaiming public space, fighting rats, and improving quality of life for all New Yorkers,' Mayor Eric Adams said.
Michael Nagle
The gassing process boasts a 95% kill rate for seven days, takes about three minutes and does not require a license to operate the proper equipment, Adams said.
Officials said the gas doesn't pose a risk to humans or non-rats, and the noisy equipment used to deploy the carbon monoxide will be at least 10 feet away from the foundation of nearby buildings.
5 Officials said the gas poses no risk to humans or non-rats, and the noisy equipment used to deploy the carbon monoxide will be at least 10 feet away from the foundation of nearby buildings.
Michael Nagle
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The latest initiative in the war on rats – followed by the containerization of 70% of the city's street trash and even a rat birth control program – is set to put an end to the 'historically exploited' street tree beds used by vermin as a breeding ground, officials said.
'As a lifelong New Yorker … my main concern was always the tree beds,' Prospect Heights resident and Sterling Place Committee on Rat Mitigation (SCRAM) member Mark Abbott said at the news conference at Stroud Playground.
'At night, [rats] would come out and they would cross into people's yards – you were afraid to walk down the streets at night because you never knew when one of these things would jump out and decide to scurry across your feet or bring their babies with them,' he said. 'I am so happy to see that this is actually happening.'
But not everyone wants to see rats meet their maker.
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5 A rat in Delury Square in Manhattan's Financial District.
Stephen Yang
John Di Leonardo, executive director of the animal advocacy group Humane Long Island, told The Post that the rats will suffer a 'slow and painful death' due to the poison – and argued lethal methods don't work 'as the resultant spike in the food supply causes accelerated breeding among survivors.
'There will always be rats in New York City, and a walk through any part of the city shows plenty of food and trash on the sidewalk and streets,' Di Leonardo added. 'If that's taken care of, the rat population will decrease naturally. Carbon monoxide kills people and pets every day, never intentionally – using it in city parks and streets is both cruel and reckless.'
5 The latest initiative in the war on rats – followed by containerizing 70% of the city's street trash and even feeding the rodents birth control – is set to put an end to the 'historically exploited' street tree beds used by vermin as a breeding ground.
Michael Nagle
The city's kill team will start 'immediately' and respond to referrals from the health department and 311 reports – such as the 2,300 street tree bed-related rat reports received last year, Parks sources said.
The team is expected to see disproportionately high calls to 'rat mitigation zones' in Bedford-Stuyvesant/Bushwick, Harlem, Bronx Grand Concourse and East Village/Chinatown.
In each of the last six months, 311 complaints of rodent sightings have decreased compared to the same months last year, with sightings down 22% last month and 17% to date this month, City Hall said — largely attributing the success to changing waste containerization rules.
Advertisement
'For too long, rats in street tree beds have gone unaddressed — undermining the hard work of both city agencies and local communities,' NYC Parks Commissioner Rodriguez-Rosa said.
'With this new investment, we're closing that gap. By combining science-based, non-toxic approaches with dedicated staff, we're protecting our trees, our neighborhoods, and our quality of life.'
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