Rat complaints in NYC fell 15% vs. a year ago. But are we just getting used to them?

Reports of rodent sightings fell by roughly 15% last month compared to May 2022, according to data from the city’s 311 complaint database analyzed by Gothamist.

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, annual rodent sightings had been increasing in the five boroughs, prompting a series of citywide laws and initiatives targeting rats. In April, the city began requiring residential buildings to leave curbside garbage out later in the evenings instead of afternoons in an effort to cut down the hours trash spends on the streets in the hopes that ravenous rats will abate.

Mayor Eric Adams — known for his long-standing hatred of rats that began before he got to City Hall — also named a “rat czar” to reduce the city’s rat population.

The decline in complaints last month was driven by residents in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan, according to 311 data. Meanwhile, Queens and Staten Island residents had more rat reports in May compared to May 2022.

While the number of vermin complaints is down, it’s too soon to breathe a sigh of relief — rat complaints typically peak in the summer months, data shows.

Some neighborhoods faced increased rodent sightings between January and May 2023, compared to the same period last year. In Astoria, rat reports nearly doubled from 95 sightings to 181. But in areas like the Upper West Side and Central Harlem, with some of the highest numbers of rat sightings, reported complaints are down, according to the 311 data.

Last year’s record-high number of rat sighting complaints was driven by a series of factors, including a return to in-person work and higher temperatures, said Pedro Frisneda, deputy press secretary for the city’s health department.

“I think the question was not ‘why is 2023 lower’ but ‘why was 2022 higher,’” Frisneda said, noting that rat sighting complaints last month more closely resemble the figures from May 2021.

Frisneda pointed to a broad range of initiatives targeting rats including “mitigation,” “education,” and “containerization and composting.”

“Controlling rats requires work by many agencies to achieve a single goal: run the rats out of town!” he said in an email.

Experts say that in theory, reducing the garbage supply — one of the Adams administration’s strategies to combat rodents — is an effective way to reduce rat populations.

“Reducing the access to food is a very good idea and actually one of the basic principles to prevent high numbers of rats,” explained Miriam Maas, a researcher at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.

But some experts remain skeptical of how the Adams administration is executing its rat mitigation strategies.

Michael Parsons, a visiting research scholar at Fordham University studying urban rodentology, wrote in an email to Gothamist that 311 data has several limitations when used to evaluate rat populations.

For example, a new resident in a neighborhood might be more likely to report rats than a longer-term resident who's used to them, Parsons explained. The rodentology researcher wrote a response to the city’s rodent control strategy in March, calling the mayor’s plan “underwhelming.”

For Parsons, the lack of robust data to measure rat populations means that it’s hard to determine whether the city’s anti-rat policies are working.

“I have been critical of the current approach because there doesn’t appear to be any data collected for any of these approaches,” Parsons said. “It is possible one or more of these approaches is having some benefit. Unfortunately, we may never know.”

“While it’s still early, any sign that there are fewer rats in our city is a welcome one,” said mayoral spokesperson Kate Smart. “It’s also a sign that New Yorkers are doing their part to help deprive rats of food and shelter, by composting, following the trash set-out times, keeping litter off our streets, and addressing conditions that are conducive to rodents. It takes all of us to win the war on rats.”

Maas and Parsons, along with many environmental experts, both note that the population of rats is more than a nuisance: It’s also a public health risk.

For example, Maas’ native country of the Netherlands faces leptospirosis, a disease that rats can pass to humans through their urine. Though the disease isn’t common in New York City, cases have been increasing, according to the city’s health department.

Parsons added that rats regularly carry bacteria like salmonella and E. coli, two common pathogens that can make people sick. Rats can also lead to stress and depression among residents that deal with them, he noted.

Rodent complaints are typically forwarded to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is then charged with inspecting the property where the rodent was spotted, according to 2021 health department guidance. If health department inspectors find evidence of rat activity, they give property owners at least five days to address the complaints. Owners of properties that fail inspections can face fines.

“No one wants to live with an unwanted guest, let alone one that eats trash and carries disease,” said Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who introduced the measure requiring garbage pickup times to move later in the evening.

The policy, which was enacted on April 1, keeps trash off of the sidewalk for longer.

“I believe this made a huge difference,” he said. “We hope these waste setout changes … will shut off the rats’ food supply.”

Abreu represents portions of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights, two neighborhoods with some of the highest numbers of rodent sighting complaints to 311.

Though the decline in complaints was modest this month, the coming cold season might offer some hope for New Yorkers who can’t wait to see rats off the streets.

Once winter rolls around, rats don’t mate as often as they do in the spring, Parsons told Gothamist. Instead, they “hunker down, limit their movements and conserve energy.”