Top of the Heap
November 4, 2014 6:02 PM   Subscribe

How many rats are there in New York? A new study reports the number may not be the previously estimated twice as many rats as people . Where did the wildly inflated numbers come from? Snopes has the scoop. Don't worry, you can still enjoy the Interactive NYC Rat Map.
posted by bq (12 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is new? I remember in Rats that the author estimated (I think) approximately a million. Which is half of this new report, but much more reasonable than the Post article. (Although if you believe anything the Post prints you deserve what you get.)
posted by Hactar at 6:24 PM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well are we accounting for the almost certainly verminocidal effects of Sandy here? That kind of long-tail catastrophe shooting out of nowhere must have taken a massive bite out of the population.
posted by shivohum at 6:34 PM on November 4, 2014 [4 favorites]


What about mice? The rats all hang out on the streets. It's the mice that climb the apartment stairs. Rats + mice is way more than people.
posted by bhnyc at 7:05 PM on November 4, 2014


"In 2013, it was announced that New York municipal authorities would implement a plan for mass sterilization of the city's rats, using a chemical to neutralize the reproductive systems of female rats. Bait stations loaded with the chemical will be deployed. The chemical's effects will gradually shrink the number of pups a female rat can have in a litter, eventually rendering them infertile."

That's from Wikipedia

Perhaps part of the reason for the lower count?
posted by banished at 7:45 PM on November 4, 2014


Don't forget the skunks.
posted by kokaku at 8:15 PM on November 4, 2014


I live in a river town in the southern swamp [New Orleans] and the more mice and bugs there are the less I spend on cat food for my little feral Squirrley cat. Her smelling like a cat keeps the rodents away mostly. God help them if she gets ahold of them.

She's very very small, like three pounds at most and my little buddy who sleeps by me. She has teensy paws until she is agitited. She waits.
posted by vapidave at 8:16 PM on November 4, 2014


vapidave: "feral Squirrley cat. Her smelling like a cat keeps the rodents away mostly. God help them if she gets ahold of them."

Feral cats are becoming big in Chicago, too. Feed 'em, and provide them a "cat house" in the winter, and you're good to go. Oh, also gotta mention that they're all spayed and neutered too.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 11:54 PM on November 4, 2014


In Germany, the Rat is not seen as abominable: an 'old town rat' is a man about town.

Italian, by contrast, has no word for 'rat'; they merely refer to 'big mice'.

However rats and mice do not coexist: rats are in fact assiduous muricides.

Get away from me, Snopes! ...I said back off!
posted by Segundus at 1:18 AM on November 5, 2014


FTFA:
The numbers, when Auerbach ran them, were far lower than 8 million, the stuff of urban legend. His number: a paltry 2 million.
Still too many for me. I'll stay here in flyover country, thank you very much.
posted by double block and bleed at 5:56 AM on November 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


I guess this is a good place to mention that this electronic rat trap was the only thing that got the mouse we couldn't get rid of. It might have been an AskMe recommendation. The mouse wouldn't go near our live traps, but this one got him in two days. Also no smashed rodent to deal with like in snap traps.

I assume it works as advertised on rats too. I'm glad to know there are fewer than thought, but once they're in your house, that's thin comfort.
posted by emjaybee at 6:46 AM on November 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


rats are in fact assiduous muricides

That's really only Jenner and Sullivan. Nicodemus and Justin are nice to the Brisby's.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:41 AM on November 5, 2014 [2 favorites]


What about mice?

What about squirrels? Squirrels are just rats with fashionably groomed tails.

And pigeons! Shouldn't we count the rats with wings?
posted by happyroach at 10:33 AM on November 5, 2014


« Older An Art of Air and Fire: Brazil’s Renegade...   |   Dance, baby, dance Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments