Rat Outbreak In Carroll Park Prompts City Action

CARROLL GARDENS, BROOKLYN — The New York City Parks Department is taking "aggressive" steps to fight an outbreak of rats in Carroll Park, a city spokeswoman told Patch.

The city heard from residents over a month ago that the park had been overrun by the rodents and has since begun the intensive effort to get them out.

"In response to the community alerting Parks to this matter, approximately six weeks ago, we took aggressive action to mitigate and have already begun to see positive results," Mae Ferguson, a Park spokeswoman, said.

That action includes taking trash from the park every day, putting lids on open trash cans, cleaning up debris and vegetation to have better access to rat burrows and increasing bait usage and burrow collapsing.

The rat outbreak is not a new occurrence, according to one resident.

"I've seen rats running around there. It happens from time to time," said Glen Kelly, a founding member of Friends Of Carroll Park and co-chair of Community Board 6's Parks committee.

"We’ve had a couple of outbreaks, and they’ve always been managed. It just happens. We’ve got the subway running underneath, there are open trash cans on the street."

According to The New York Post, Carroll Park has been the source of more 3-1-1 rodent complaints this year — 49 so far — than any park in Brooklyn, including Prospect Park.

Kelly said Friends of Carroll Park has been helping the city with its eradication efforts by having a volunteer mark "rat nest holes," so the city knows where to place the bait when it comes by.

"We’re doing what we can do. And occasionally it gets out of hand," he said of the rat problem. "This is not unusual. It’s being handled as it has been handled before."

Image via Yelp