How bad are the rats and roaches, really?

[Adhom]

My sense is that Manhattan is quite infested when it comes to rats, at least compared to my area of queens. Roaches will depend on your particular building and your neighbors. Pray you don't end up near a hoarder.

[riversidegal]

i never see any roach or rats inside my apartment building but I've seen those rats hanging around the garbage that was thrown by the tenants in front of the building. in fact i saw one last night trying to eat a leftover Chinese.

[NYorkie]

In my Manhattan apartments, never. When I lived in a larger building in Queens, from time to time. We kept it clean but I couldn't control my neighbors. It was very annoying b/c of how they are just suddenly there. They had some dude come and spray monthly, but that didn't do much. I'd say we saw a roach about once every 6-8 weeks. I never saw a mouse, but when we moved, we discovered remnants of one. Gross. So far, so good since then. I am not one who handles it well. I also have a cat.

[MilksFavoriteCookie]

Originally Posted by spicymeatball

Are they in pretty much every apartment or is it overstated by people?

Overstated.

Once you get an infestation call exterminator (local) and usually it is a one time only deal. Their products work exceptionally well. For example, the entire building could be infested, but you wont even see one roach in your home. Their repellents are very strong. I believe he used Dupont gel and not a lot either. All he did was apply the gel to the problem areas twice and less than a month roach free.

I believe he also used ammonia too that you can buy at local grocery store.

Wont bore you with details of how it works, but yep you can buy these products dirt cheap and DIY.

When problems reoccur, it is because A, they are slobs and keep leaving food around. B, they keep using cheap OTC products which were purposely designed to only temporarily resolve the problem. C, apt. just has too many openings or cracks and it is winter.

As for rats, um who are you talking too?

[BugsyPal]

Common (Norway) rat which is found in NYC is a borrowing animal thus often gains access to buildings at the ground floors or via basements. That is normally where they will remain unless or until the population becomes great, at that point dominate rats force out the weaker ones to set up house somewhere else, that is when they start moving to upper floors in a building.

Generally you don't hear say of one apartment on the fifth floor having rats when the rest of the building does not. So if they are "up there" then they are in the walls.

Yes, Manhattan and perhaps other parts of the City may be "infested" with rats, but long as a building takes an proactive approach it isn't a problem.

Mice are more of a problem in NYC residential buildings because of their small size. They only need a hole about the size of a dime to get their heads through then will pull the rest of their body.