— Photo by David Shankbone
Excerpted and edited from a Boston Guardian article
Thanks to miles of very old sewage infrastructure, population density, improperly disposed food refuse and an emphasis on poisoning over prevention, Downtown Boston is home to more rats than anywhere else in the city….
The number one driver of rat populations is food refuse, and open-air markets, abundant restaurants and aging infrastructure make downtown the perfect environment for rodent populations to thrive. A single reliable food source, such as food shrapnel from litter or markets, improperly used dumpsters, plastic garbage bags and cheap trash cans, can sustain hundreds of rats that will spill over into adjacent areas.
The Norway rat, Boston’s only rat species, is capable of chewing through the most commonly used cheap plastic trash can in under an hour. Food refuse left out in plastic bags doesn’t stand a chance.
Boston Rodent Action Plan recommendations reflect an emphasis on prevention, rather than the typically reactive responses of property owners.
“Rat poison bait boxes were found to be overly abundant in locations and in numbers per location, to the point of nonsensical and in some areas also not in adherence EPA pesticide label laws, in virtually all the neighborhoods visited,” reports the BRAP. Boston’s miles of old brick sewers are a sprawling home to centuries-old rat colonies that will happily replace exterminated surface rats so long as food refuse remains accessible.
Downtown Boston
— Photo by Nick Allen
