April 10, 2007
D.C.'s Rat Race
Last week we checked out that hotbed of hard news, Inside Edition, as they visited our fair city and shined the bright light of truth on the District's rat problem. Today the Examiner reports from the front lines of the war on rodents and concludes that we're losing. From all four quadrants the perennial urban menaces -- sometimes the size of small dogs -- are scurrying about, causing various levels of disgust and panic.
How is the city dealing with public outcries? "We're declaring a war on rats," said Leila Abrar, a spokesman for the Health Department. Another city official, Pamela Keller, told the Examiner, "It's not totally unexpected to see more rats in the warm weather. More rat babies, people leave more food around. It's not a war we can win by ourselves."
Perhaps drug companies should be coming up with some form of rat birth control. Back in those innocent days of summer 2005, the city released a handy pamphlet outlining ways good citizens can to thwart those dirty menaces. Along with common sense advice that everyone should follow, like don't leave food around, they also recommend buying poison, snap traps and even calling your own professional exterminator. All this sounds like a serious investment in weapons, while the city doesn't have a clear plan to win the war on city-wide scale. Apparently they agree that you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.
The District's primary tool for finding rats is their hotline, (202) 727-1000, and a form for reporting areas of infestation. Once the Department of Health gets your notice, they promise to respond with an investigation in 15 days. But it's what happens next that caught our attention. The rat report is placed into one of three categories: vector control, serious problem and chronic problem. From there it could take up to a year from the city to chase away your invading critters. At least the DOH knows how to manage expectations.
So how do you fight rats? Has anyone had experience with the ominously titled Office of Vector Control? Can Inside Edition, or perhaps Geraldo Rivera save our city?
Photo of monster rat on I st. by Flickr user Daquella Manera used under Creative Commons license.
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I saw a mouse in Whole Foods yesterday. When I discreetly told an employee, he just gave a shrug...kinda unnerving.
Back when I was an ANC commissioner (03-05) the woman in charge of rat abatement in DC was very friendly, but there wasn't a ton they could do to help. The biggest pain was that to get the city to treat a block for rats (i.e., to have DC come in and bait backyards or alleys) you had to have all of your neighbors sign a petition to get it done. They would come if you reported large buildings for rat issues and inspect and cite problems, but weren't terribly speedy due to a lack of resources.
I remember way back in 2003 or so a public forum on the rat problem, where Mayor Williams stood at the podium and promised to take the issue of rats seriously. Then he proceeded to either shoot down or excuse away every suggestion that the audience posed for addressing the rats. One person directly accused him of not taking the problem seriously, and an exasperated Williams responded with "What do you want me to do?" The obvious answer was, "You could start by not shooting down any idea presented to you."
Unless Mayor Fenty is going to take the rat problem more seriously than his predecessor, we're all just going to have to accept that DC is infested and that's that.
How common are rat invasions in one's home? I always figured it was roaches and mice you had to watch out for, but I'm getting a bit unnerved with all this rat talk. I'm sort of waiting for the day I wake up and discover that my place has gotten both an ineradicable rat and bedbug problem at once.
I'm sure Jim Graham and his good friends on 7th Street will kill this too. Especially seeing how helpful he's been to killing off Operation Fight Back against slummy businesses. Music bad! People who pay for fact-finding trips to exotic warm places good!
I also saw a rat near Whole Foods (Logan Circle). It was running into a garbage can outside the store, and this was in broad daylight, too. Nasty!
Alex - To be fair, most city folk couldn't tell the difference between a rat and a mouse if they were face to face. Either way, their disease vectors are similar. If people hadn't grown up with cutesy Mickey Mouse, they'd know better.
I have killed 3 mice in my house in the past 8 days.
Where do they come from?
Am i really that dirty?
I guess I am.
My alley at 19th & R Street has a new dead rat (or mouse) in the entrance every day. The "ratcakes" are wonderful after someone drives over their carcus.
And the picture is from protestors who work for a construction company, they protested (still?) for over a year about some grievance. I think the rat symbolized a snitch inside the company.
@ Taco Bell: I don't think it has anything to do with snitches, but rather with strikebreakers and the companies that hire them. We had a slew of protesters in front of our building for months because one of the subcontractors working on building out an unoccupied floor had brought in non-union labor (electricians, I think?) when the union demands got too pricey. I don't think the protesters were even the striking workers, but rather were just hired by the union to create a nuisance. And of course the strikebreakers went in through a service entrance, so the only people actually subjected to the protesters were random workers like me who had nothing to do with what they were protesting. So yeah, really effective use of their and the union's time and resources.
"most city folk couldn't tell the difference between a rat and a mouse if they were face to face"
really you think? enough time in the city and you will definitely learn the difference. i know i have it down pretty pat after enough run-ins with both. in some ways i prefer the rats, but then, i've never faced a rat infestation.
i have seen a lot of rats lately, but i figured it was just the weather. just when i think rodents don't phase me anymore, there was like a whole herd of rats near U Street as i was walking along one night recently. one or two rats i can shrug off, but a whole group of them makes me a little nervous, i start thinking they are gonna swarm me.
The first slum,ahem, group house i lived in in the NE was infested with mice. It probably had to do with food we left out and also the house being old with lots of holes and cracks for the mice to hide in, finally got one with a good old fashioned mouse trap and some peanut butter.
I live in another old albeit nicer rowhouse in the SE and so far, no mice, but it probably has a lot to do with the big ole cat my roommate has. Natural predators are always the best deterrent it seems.
My apt. building on Vernon St. (18th & U) is seriously infested. I had a rat in the kitchen until I started boxing all my dry food in tupperware and placing it in the cabinet. That thing could climb up on top of my refrigerator somehow! The unit next door had rats crawling through a hole in her bedroom floor, crossing the apt to the kitchen trash, then heading back through the bedroom to its hole...all while she lay in bed awake & terrified. We both have an exterminator every other week and it doesn't help in the slightest.
let the cats out.
I think the use of nuclear weapons would be advisable.
Does DCist simply regurgitate/respond to Examiner articles? Seriously, about every article on this homepage is like a repurposing of Examiner stories -- or reacting to them.