Birth of a new era as NYC plants rat contraceptives in Harlem
The city just opened its latest front on its war against its most hated rodents — lacing rat bait around the city with birth control.
The program kick-started on city property in Harlem last week — and is expected to cost nearly $600,000 annually for the anti-procreation pellets and a staff of five full-timers, including a city research scientist and pest-control aide, according to City Council documents.
4 The city is pulling out all the stops to contraception to try to curb its rat population.
Christopher Sadowski
The move comes a week after UFO-like 'Empire Bins'' were put in the same Manhattan neighborhood to try to end curbside feasts for the relentless rodents.
'We're incredibly excited and optimistic about all the containerization work we're seeing in the city because that's reducing food competition — and really reducing a rat's ability to reproduce by cutting off its food source,' city rat czar Kathleen Corradi told The Post in an exclusive interview Monday.
'What the science tells us is removal of a food source, removal of those conditions that allow them to thrive, is how we get to achieve sustained production — and we're seeing really great results in that regard,' she said.
4 Big Apple officials from Mayor Eric Adams on down have declared war on the rodents.
Kevin C Downs for The New York Post
The rodent 'contraceptive stations' rely on bait designed to specifically woo rats.
The contraceptive pellets slow egg production in female rats and sperm mobility in males.
The effort is part of 'Flaco's Law,' which the council passed after rat poison was linked to the death of the Central Park Zoo's beloved escapee Flaco the owl.
The contraceptives are in tamper-resistant contraptions and pose an extremely low risk to humans, pets or 'non-target' wildlife, a city rep said.
The city Health Department will conduct monthly inspections to track signs of rats in the area, according to the legislation.
4 Hundreds of 'Empire Bins' designed to get residential waste off of city streets were installed in Harlem this year.
Kevin C Downs for The New York Post
Once the pilot wraps in 12 months, workers will report to the mayor and council on whether the approach has been effective at curbing rats.
Citywide rat sightings reported to 311 are down each of the past six months when compared to the same time period last year, coinciding with the city's new requirements for closed-lid trash containers.
But not all areas around the city have seen a decrease in rat sightings.
The community-board district where the contraception pilot program is in West Harlem has seen a 7.8% jump in rat sightings compared to this time last year, according to a Post analysis of 311 data.
Corradi argues that the city's efforts are only as good as property owners' compliance from waste containerization to outdoor dining regulations.
4 A rat-chewed New York City Department of Sanitation trash bin shows how pesky the critters are.
Gabriella Bass
'[Human] behavior change is hard,' she said.
'We are doing integrated pest management on city-owned properties, but then the 98% remaining of the tax lots that are privately owned properties, that's up to the property owners to choose what mechanisms they're doing when it comes to [rat population] control.'
Corradi added that when one area has success combatting the rodents, she doesn't expect hungry rats to simply migrate to other parts of the city in search of food because the rodent species is 'by nature, hyperlocal.
'Typically, these animals don't travel 100 to 300 feet from where they're living to their food source,' she said.
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