Chicago Is Upping Its Rat-Fighting Efforts As Pest Complaints Soar

By Mike Ewing in News on Apr 12, 2016 7:00PM



Joseph Dennis

Facing a soaring number of pest complaints, the Department of Streets and Sanitation is enlisting ten new rodent control crews into its war against rats. If they're anything like the ever-tenacious #broomrat, then the folks at Streets and San have their work cut out for them.

The city is on pace to reach 50,000 rat complaints this year, up by as much as 50 percent compared to last year, according to an ordinance backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last month. This increase is caused in part by major construction projects across the city driving rats out of hiding and into the streets. And there just aren’t enough feral cats to kill them all. So, the two-person rodent control teams work to decrease the pest population through abatement (a.k.a. poisoning) rats in problem areas and spreading pellets that keep them from reproducing.

“These measures will promote efficiency so that the City will be able to more quickly respond to requests from residents and, perhaps more importantly, eliminate the potential for problems before they become problems for residents,” Emanuel said in a statement.

Some city workers are being reassigned from trash collection duty to the anti-rat teams because they aren’t needed to pick up garbage thanks to the new and efficient grid-based system. Officials also announced plans to increase education efforts and form a new Rodent Task Force to bring together different city agencies.

Some things you can do to help in the War of the Rodents include:





Maintaining/getting rid of bird feeders, which are basically pigeon and rat buffets



Cleaning up after your pets because gross



Putting trash into bins. Obvious, we know, but still.



See something scurrying by? Call 311 or report it online.