Nutcracker Mice Invade Big Apple

If you’ve ever seen the mice in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, you get an idea of how big the rats can seem to get in New York City as frightened residents report a huge increase in rodent sightings…

How large is the spike in rat droppings? According to Fox 5, “rodent sightings are up 70% from the same time two years ago,” as more than 21,500 sightings were reported to the Big Apple’s 3-1-1 service request line between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 alone. To counter the problem, the City That Never Sleeps (or gets rid of its rodents) has a “multi-prong action plan” that’s going to cost taxpayers $22 million for something called “basket service” and nearly $5 million for “rat mitigation”, presumably meaning relocating them to some safe harbor. In fact, the City Council’s plan includes “rat mitigation zones” and “pre-construction rat plans.”

More specific and perhaps practical have been the Sanitation Dept’s recent call for New Yorkers to simply put trash bags on curbs closer to pick up time. The Mayor’s office is also calling for restaurants to padlock curbside trash bins and to demolish any abandoned outdoor dining sheds that were created in the city’s Open Restaurants Program to accommodate more pandemic-induced “outdoor dining.” Did you know “rats can survive on less than an ounce of food a day”? So how do they get as big as Tchaikovsky’s imagination?

Davd Soul