Boston City officials have recently turned their attention toward the furry, unwanted guests occupying Boston neighborhoods — and it’s finally come up with a plan. Rats have been taking over streets, foraging through trash, and finding themselves taking comfort in residents’ homes. Mayor Michelle Wu has worked closely with the Boston Inspectional Services Division and Dr. Bobby Corrigan, a consulting Urban Rodentologist based in New York, to create the Boston Rodent Action Plan (BRAP), which was published on June 17.

BRAP addresses the public health woes posed by the increasing number of rodents and proposes a plan to help send them packing, without relying on dangerous poisons.

Boston is one of the most rat-infested areas in the country. In particular, the Norway rat is the most common rat species found in Massachusetts, often burrowing to make a home underground and near piles of trash.

The growing rodent population poses critical health risks, increasing the vulnerability of natural wildlife and people as rats can carry and transmit infectious diseases.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many restaurants across Boston closed down and people spent most of their time at home, prompting more rats to turn toward residential areas to scavenge for food. This shift in rodent movement made the increasingly alarming rat infestation visible to residents, many of whom also reported increased sightings of rats as part of the post-Covid rat resurgence effect of 2022 noted in the BRAP report.

Climate change has also intensified the rate of rodent growth, increasing chances of rat infestation in urban settings like Boston. Warmer winters lead to a higher chance of survival, contributing to the prevalence of rats across the city as the rats adapt to the changing climate.

Through BRAP, Boston city officials aim to improve the quality of life for neighborhood residents, targeting the rat population to build safer and cleaner communities. As a multi-agency initiative, BRAP outlines preventative courses of action, including best practices for controlling rodents in housing complexes, green spaces, sewers, and construction sites.

Residents have voiced their concern online through various community forums and by filing complaints to Boston 311, where non-emergency problems are reported.

Boston officials gather information directly from Boston 311 as a reference to gain insight into the affected populations, taking the complaints on Boston 311 into account in their rat management strategies put forward in BRAP. However, they statistically normalize the data to ensure an accurate reflection of demographics of rat infestations.

Potential rat management strategies included in the BRAP final report revolved around implementing environmentally friendly pest control measures like improving sanitation practices and engaging in strong enforcement of rat management measures.

“If you walk around Boston, you’re going to see some properties very clean and some not so clean. The ones not so clean will feed an entire block of rats,” Dr. Bobby Corrigan, urban rodentologist at RMC Pest Management Consulting, told Sampan.

Highly populated areas often have an increase in rental housing, where the landlords and residents can play a crucial role in determining the amount of rats visiting the area. The use of steel garbage cans can be a long-term investment toward a cleaner neighborhood, with the benefits outweighing the initial price to purchase one. Proper trash disposal practices are influential factors to limiting the growing rodent population as well.

“Look at the way you do trash,” Corrigan emphasized, “We work by rewards… Boston is a city that needs to have a strict code for not tolerating sloppy garbage practices.”

Despite being the commonly used method to control rats in past years, the use of poison baits, such as rodenticides, pose threat to natural wildlife. Instead, the final report notes how BRAP seeks to find “alternative approaches to the use of poison baits… which include sanitation, anti-rat garden maintenance practices, and when necessary, the use of gaseous burrow treatments comprising the largest portion of a current effective IPM (Integrated Pest Management) park program for Boston’s parks.”

The report also emphasized BRAP’s intentions to mobilize communities through education efforts, hoping to “inform and educate local property owners nearby” with “an educational fact sheet which outlines the importance of basic sanitation…, rodent proofing of their properties, and other helpful information [that] helps to dispel the various rat “myths” associated with construction projects and rats.”

In addition to these solutions outlined in BRAP, city councilors discussed the potential use of birth control to limit the rising number of rats.

But Corrigan told Sampan about drawbacks with the birth control plan to mitigate the rodent issue.
As someone who participated in the original test on the use of birth control for rats in New York City subways, Corrigan notes the humane benefits of the plan, which does not require directly killing the rats.
“The problem, however, is on a scale, how would we get all the rats in a city on the pill.”

With numerous colonies of different rats exhibiting different behaviors, the birth control plan might cause a decline in population at a certain area, but will eventually get replenished by other rats who were not given birth control.

“Another problem is that (although the birth control) doesn’t kill the rats, at the same time, if someone was at school or at their property, they want them gone,” Corrigan added.

City Councilor Ed Flynn from District 2 worked closely with Corrigan and various city departments to go over best practices for targeting specific areas to decrease the ability for rats to thrive.

Although the Boston Public Health Commission has not indicated the increased prevalence of rats as a high public health threat to the residents of Boston so far, Councilor Flynn believes that the current situation is dire, calling for immediate action.

Both Dr. Corrigan and Councilor Flynn emphasized the importance of having a designated person to coordinate efforts limiting rodents, suggesting the creation of a new position to lead the city’s rodent management teams.

“The Boston Rodent Action Plan falls short as it does not formally create a ‘rat czar’ to be the dedicated point person solely focused on coordinating all city departments to address our pest control crisis,” Councilor Flynn noted.

Corrigan highlighted organizational benefits with this potential position, where “in a city, calls are coming in every day from all entities, from airports to schools to restaurants to parks. It takes careful coordination for someone who is dedicated to putting those dots together. [The city] needs a person with confidence, a person in charge that [the community] can call or vent to.” He drew on the successful example in New York City, where a good facilitator has the ability to bring agencies together and achieve greater steps towards limiting rodents.

Efforts to combat rising numbers of rats start with residents. Given the potential health risks of rats, hygiene practices can deter rodents and thus reduce exposure to harmful bacteria. Proper food disposal is crucial to prevent the recurrence of rodents entering residential areas.

Tania del Rio, Commissioner of the Inspectional Services Department, expressed hope on the prospects of BRAP in a statement on July 17.

“By integrating best practices in waste management, public education, infrastructure improvements, and environmentally friendly pest control, we are confident the BRAP will yield positive results for Boston’s residents.”