The Washington Post has their ear to the ground, listening for the news that D.C. really wants to hear: the next wave of super duper anti-rat technology. Or not, they add, but Joseph Dussich, inventor of the Repel-X trash bag, thinks he’s found the key to Pied Piper the city’s rats right out of town, or at least away from alley dumpsters. His trash bags use the aroma of eucalyptus and a few secret ingredients that are, perhaps ironically, so vile a smell to rats that they flee in disgust.
The article notes that New York City tried out the bags in Central Park, but abandoned the idea after they proved unsuccessful. Still, the parks commissioner on Long Island swears by them and the entrepreneur is quick to point out that laboratory studies find them fairly effective. The current D.C. rat consultant claims the trash bag is just another flash in the pan in our ongoing War on Rodents, but let’s be honest: are we totally convinced by the guy who’s brought us the status quo? If the cost isn’t prohibitive, isn’t it worth it to try almost anything?
Photo by dcdan.
