Rats Love Bed Stuy: City Identifies NYC Rodent Hotspots

BED STUY, NY — Mayor Eric Adams' rat-busters are headed to eight New York City areas identified as popular rat hangout spots, including Bed Stuy and parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Adams in November, 2022 ramped up the city's war on rats with four pieces of legislation to reduce rat residency across the city, including direction to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to identify targeted "rat mitigation zones" by April 1.

In Manhattan, city personnel identified the East Village, Chinatown, the Lower East Side and Harlem as rat hot spots needing increased mitigation efforts. Grand Concourse in the Bronx and Bushwick, Bed Stuy and Prospect Heights in Brooklyn were also identified as "rat mitigation zones," according to the New York Post.

“Every New Yorker has the power to promote a rat-free New York City,” New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said in 2022 when the legislation passed. “Rat mitigation zones give rats no safe quarter, and the tools in these bills empower all of us send rats packing!”

The number of local violations issued for rat activity, rat-related 311 calls and rat exterminations all helped identify these eight spots as NYC's most rat-ridden areas, according to the 2022 legislation.

The city can review similar data and adjust the rat mitigation areas accordingly, according to the 2022 legislation. NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will report back on their ramped-up mitigation efforts in the eight zones, as well as detailed information on the planned mitigation measures, according to the city.

Some 13,173 of the city's 2,810,432 311 calls over the last year were related to a rat or mouse complaints, according to city records. The city's rat complaints have increased over recent years. The city saw 13,018 311 calls related to rats and mice in 2022 and in 2021, some months saw as much as 74 percent increases over the year before.

The city on Saturday moved to reduce the time trash bags can sit on the sidewalk, asking residents to put bags on the curb after 8 p.m. and trash bins at 6 p.m., according to NYC Sanitation. Previously, residents could start dumping trash bags onto the curb at 4 p.m., Gothamist reported.

Trash has to hit the street before midnight, with exemptions for buildings with over nine units.