Quote:
Originally Posted by nickerman
I heard there are some big beasts running around. Someone said the rats are bigger than cats and chase the cats away. Any truth to that?
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What an odd question to post.
There have been rats in NYC since before the Europeans arrived and that population has only grown since that group brought more on their ships. Since then the rodent population has risen and or fallen in response to human activity but never totally gone from the city.
Right now between never ending construction coupled with more and more places serving food it is boom times for rats and mice in most areas of NYC. Long as rubbish is put out on streets in plastic bags it is happy meal times for rodents.
New York City's subway and extensive underground network of utilities actually makes travel for rats easy, they such tunnels, pipes, conduits as travel corridors to make their way around underground.
The subway system in particular is a huge source of rodent harborage. In fact anywhere you have subway lines in at least Manhattan, rats aren't very far.
Ask any of the workers in buildings along Central Park West about rats... While rodents can tunnel under CPW from Central Park (or run across), they also come up into building basements from the Eighth Avenue subway line.
On the East Side along Lexington Avenue rats come up from the sewers and subway grates to feast on the garbage thrown out in plastic bags by restaurants, food places, supermarkets, etc. Just last week was walking up Lexington Avenue from the 77th Street subway at night. A group of nurses from Lenox Hill hospital were several feet in front. All of a sudden one of the girls lets out a huge scream and runs into the street (Lexington Avenue). Her friends soon did the same. We stopped to see WTF was going on before proceeding. Sure enough there was a horde of large and very well fed rats scurrying about. They came up via the subway ventilation grates and were feasting on the contents of a huge pile of garbage thrown out by Butterfield Market. That place throws out tons of food each night so the rats have found a permanent large food source.
Residents/businesses along Second Avenue already have seen an increase in rodent activity with the Second Avenue Subway construction. They are dreading the opening of that subway line because it will surely bring what has happened outlined above; rats.
Until NYC goes back to requiring garbage be places in metal/rodent proof containers with tightly closed lids, there will be a huge rat and or mouse problem.
http://ny.curbed.com/rats
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