Rat sightings continue to plummet this summer — compared to last year’s record-high rodent sightings — as Mayor Eric Adams’ administration maintains its hardline anti-rat stance.
Sightings reported to 311 in June fell 21.2% compared to a year prior, according to 311 data analyzed by Gothamist. Last month, sightings were down around 15% year over year.
At a press conference last Wednesday, Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch celebrated what appears to be a decrease in the detested rodents. She attributed the success to “meaningful enforcement” of anti-rat policies.
“The haters and doubters wondered if it would make a difference,” she said at the conference. “Sometimes they didn't even wonder, they just insisted it wouldn't.”
So far, sightings over the first half of 2023 are around 6% lower than the same period in 2022.A relative decline in May and June followed a slight year-over-year increase in sightings in April and March, plus a 23% increase in January.
In rat mitigation zones, designated regions where the city is focusing its anti-rodent measures, rat sightings fell around 30%, Tisch said at the conference.
She also described 311 calls as a “preliminary data source,” which is used in combination with other indicators that she did not describe. Rodent experts — including urban "rodentologist" Michael Parsons — agree that 311 calls are an imperfect measure of rat activity. That’s because some people may over-report or under-report rat sightings.
The city's health department uses abatement orders, rat exterminations and resource availability as other tools to identify areas with elevated rodent activity and designate rat mitigation zones.
Tisch highlighted the city’s push for containerization — using trash can lids, that is — and the success of the city’s rat mitigation zone program as the city continues its war on rats.
The four original zones — adopted earlier this year as high-priority rodent control targets — span three of the five boroughs.
The Harlem zone, which covers Harlem and Morningside Heights, experienced one of the largest declines citywide in 311 complaints.
Between June 2022 and June 2023, rat sightings in the region dropped by 32.8%, with the steepest drop in Central Harlem.
Some regions outside of rat mitigation zones experienced substantial decreases in rat reports, according to Vincent Gragnani, the sanitation department's press secretary. For example, Bushwick experienced a 37.7% year-over-year decrease in June.
For rat-averse New Yorkers, the final counts for June could signal better months ahead. Rat sightings have historically decreased at the end of the summer months, as the rodents mate less.
