Dive Brief:
- New York City is holding its first-ever National Urban Rat Summit in September, which will convene rat researchers and municipal experts to discuss urban rat management, Mayor Eric Adams announced on May 15.
- Adams touted in a statement the early success of his administration’s “war on rats,” which centers on getting the trash bags that pile up on the streets into containers. Rat sightings are down 14% year over year in the city’s four rat mitigation zones.
- "The Urban Rat Summit is an opportunity to share best practices as the ‘Trash Revolution’ marches forward,” NYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Rats, which pose public health risks, are a major headache for cities across the U.S.
“Municipalities are charged with managing rats on a large scale, but there are only a handful of technical resources intended for this important audience, and subject area experts are similarly rare,” Matt Frye, senior extension associate of Cornell University’s New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, said in a statement. The Cornell program is a partner of NYC’s for the urban rat summit, which will take place on Sept. 18 and 19.
The summit aims to forge connections between municipalities and the researchers studying rats, Frye said. Already slated to attend the summit are municipal experts from Boston, New Orleans and Seattle, according to a news release.
New York City is infamous for its rat woes, with Adams hiring a “rat czar” last year to spearhead the city’s anti-rodent agenda. In addition to containerizing trash, the city is working to limit rats’ access to food sources in parks and is targeting the places where they burrow. The city’s housing authority has designated 45 exterminators to treat its public spaces and purchased equipment that puts pesticides directly into rat burrows, according to a news release. The housing authority also has a team that focuses on trying to collapse rat burrows, which prevents the rodents from mating and helps to track the colonies.
“The best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy,” Adams said. “That’s why we’re holding this inaugural summit, to bring experts and leaders from across the country together to better understand urban rats and how to manage their populations.”
The city does not have further details about registering for the summit or the exact location, but it will soon, Liz Garcia, deputy press secretary for the mayor’s office, said in an email to Smart Cities Dive.
