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Since 2014, rat sightings are up 38 percent, according to watchdog site OpenTheBooks.com. There were 12,617 sightings reported in 2014, a number which has jumped to 17,353 just four years later.
In response to the growing population, Open the Books, a nonprofit organization, has created an interactive map to allow area residents to see each reported rat sighting in their current or prospective neighborhood. The map includes all sightings in 2018 and 2019.
If the current pace of reported rat sightings keeps up, there could be a new record high, with as many as 400 new reports year-to-year, a 2.5 percent increase.
The rise in rat population and sightings comes as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has pledged millions of dollars to help curb the increasing number of vermin plaguing city streets.
“We want to make the greatest city on earth the worst place in the world to be a rat,” he said in a statement last year. “We are launching an all-out offensive to dramatically reduce the rat population at these developments and improve the quality of life for residents.”
Efforts have been made to increase litter and garbage pickups, and health officials said that in the past 15 years, the active signs of rat activities has nearly doubled.
A New York Times report published May 22 headlined "Rats Are Taking Over New York City" stated that as Manhattan and the boroughs continue construction efforts on multi-million dollar developments, they’ve been digging up burrows and forcing more rats out into the open, where they’ve learned to feast on leftover food and trash.
Climate change was also cited, with the warmer weather making it easier for rats to survive and multiply.
Health officials reported there were 30,874 reports of “active rat signs” which include sightings, feces and other obvious signs. In the first three months this year, there were more than 8,000 inspection reports of rat signs, more than 1,200 more than in the same stretch of time last year.
The city has specifically sought and taken steps to reduce the rat population in Bushwick; Webster; Marcy; Butler; Morris I; Morris II; Riis I; Riis II; Morrisania; and Hylan.
Steps taken include dry-ice abatement; a larger roster of full-time exterminators; new waste containers and dirt floors were replaced in several New York City buildings.
“Infestations of any kind means you have a quality of life issue on your hands, and it’s likely not the only one. We know this to be the case at Bushwick Houses. When rats take hold, and populations pervade, it is damaging in many ways," former Sen. Martin Malave Dilan said last year. "There are the obvious health risks to tenants and the Bushwick community, but it goes deeper than that. Infestations have serious psychological consequences such as depression and anxiety. The rat reduction program is well worth the investment."
The infestation is not limited to just New York, the report notes, with other major cities such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chicago also seeing a major uptick in reported rat sightings.
Efforts to curtail the rat population nationwide has included cities recruiting additional work crews dedicated to poisoning rats in parks, alleys, and backyards. There have also been efforts to test a rat-sterilization program that uses liquid contraceptives as bait. In Seattle, officials plan to train property owners on ways to stem infestations.
According to the report, the most rat sightings have been reported from the Upper West Side, followed by four Brooklyn neighborhoods: Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Ocean Hill. Multiple sightings have also been reported on Long Island and in the lower Hudson Valley.
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