Rats could be coming out in force during the pandemic.

Humans aren’t the only ones fighting over the last morsels of food these days. For us, we’re duking it out at the grocery store in the bread aisle. But for New Jersey’s rodent population, it’s happening in the streets.

And if you’re not careful, those furry little balls of disease and bacteria could be bringing the battle inside your own home.

Across New Jersey, the coronavirus pandemic has forced restaurants to shutter, businesses to close and entire office buildings to shut down. The garbage and food scraps that used to pile up in dumpsters behind properties are now empty, leaving vermin who used to feast like kings and queens on the trash to search out other food sources.

That search for their next nibble could be coming to your front or backdoor if you’re not careful, rodent experts say.

Think the Pied Piper with his horde of rats flooding the streets — minus the music and magic pipe.

“If food does not show up for two or three nights in a row, they will try to find another source of food,” said Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist (yes, that’s a real gig) and the nation’s preeminent rat expert. “People are going to start seeing these rats and they’ll say, ‘Where did these rats come from?!’ The answer is they probably didn’t come from too far. Maybe a block or two or three away.”

Increased rat sightings already are being reported in cities across the United States, as the decline in food waste in alleyways has forced local rodent populations into the streets. The phenomenon was captured on video last month in New Orleans, where most of the city is shut down and coronavirus cases are soaring. In the clip, droves of rats scurried down the empty streets of the city’s famed French Quarter — not to wiggle to jazz music, but in desperate search of beignets scraps and discarded po boy bread.

With this Coronavirus, the city of New Orleans is on lockdown. And Bourbon Street is empty and full of rats & mice. Rats even know how hot Bourbon Street is. pic.twitter.com/XatT6osk4y — Joshua Guss (@joshua504man) March 20, 2020

Corrigan said New Jersey towns and cities could see a similar pattern. Two places in particular should be on high alert, he added: Areas that already had rat populations before the coronavirus took hold, and neighborhoods near businesses or restaurants that used to discard high volumes of food trash but are now closed during the pandemic.

While there’s no evidence at this point indicating rats carry the novel coronavirus, Corrigan said they can be associated with as many as 55 diseases.

“We don’t want those animals in our apartments, houses, restaurants or grocery stores because you end up playing disease lottery if that happens,” Corrigan said. “You don’t want any one of those 55 diseases.”

If a food source suddenly dries up behind a restaurant, office building or strip mall, Corrigan said rats first will begin killing and eating each other. In some cases, they’ll also eat babies alive from their nests. Once that food is exhausted, the rats will move on.

And nobody wants Hannibal Lecter rats showing up at their doors.

“Rats have a very low tolerance for being hungry,” Corrigan said. “The strongest rats will start killing the weaker rats to get that protein instead of what the restaurant was providing, or they start moving down blocks or to areas where people have never seen rats before.”

Changlu Wang, an entomology specialist at Rutgers, said restaurants or businesses that recently closed due to the pandemic also need to be on high alert for rodent infestation. If food left inside the building is not properly stored or sealed, rats can infiltrate, devour it and start reproducing at a rapid rate.

Wang also said some temporarily or permanently shuttered restaurants or businesses that had hired regular pest control services may have canceled the treatments, leaving them even more vulnerable to vermin.

“It can turn into a more serious problem during the shutdown,” Wang said.

Corrigan said rats only need a half-inch gap to squeeze their way into a restaurant.

“Those rats will move into that empty restaurant and it won’t be empty of rats for long,” Corrigan said. “It will be a rat haven.”

So, what can you do to guard against a drove of hungry rats scurrying into your home or business? The key is making sure any gaps under doorways or holes into your home or garage are plugged tightly, Corrigan said. Equally important is making sure your trash is stored properly and securely in a trashcan, even when you drag it out to the street.

“The fact of the matter is many of us in our towns and cities, your neighbors and my neighbors and maybe ourselves, we do not take out our trash correctly,” Corrigan said. “We just take it out, throw it quickly in a can and walk back into the house. Raccoons and rats and pigeons and vermin and cockroaches, they all high-five each other because they’re like, ‘See, all we need is this one neighbor not to pay attention to the basic common sense of how to take the trash out correctly.’”

The nation’s preeminent rat expert also had one other tip: If you see a rodent in your home, don’t try to eradicate it yourself.

“Hire a professional pest person,” he said. “This is not a do-it-yourself kind of animal. You have to hire someone who knows what they’re doing.”