NYC Rat Battle Scurries Forward With New ‘Squeaky Clean’ Laws: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — A quartet of new laws will help solve New York City’s centuries-old rat problem by keeping the city “squeaky clean,” said Mayor Eric Adams.

Rat puns were as abundant as Big Apple rodents Friday as Adams signed four bills into law that, among other actions, officially will move back the city’s trash set-out time.

Adams also professed his “hate” for rats — which he arguably proved years ago when he emptied boozy rat traps filled with a slurry of dead critters in front of shocked reporters — numerous times during the signing ceremony. He argued the laws will put a permanent dent in the rat population through citywide cleanliness.

“Clean streets are vital to vibrant neighborhoods and New York City’s economic recovery,” he said.

The laws require health officials to set up “rat mitigation zones” by April 1, 2023 — the date that the city is set to move back the long-standing 4 p.m. trash set-out time.

Under the trash change, trash in secure container must go out after 6 p.m. and black bags can only be set on the curb after 8 p.m.

Adams and sanitation officials argue the shorter time trash is out at night will effectively starve rats — or, in their words, end the “rodents' all you-can-eat buffet.”

But it remains to be seen if the trash change will work, especially because it still keeps garbage on the streets at night when rats are active.

Experts do say that focusing rats’ food sources, rather than setting up traps, is the most effective way to curb their populations.

“Unless there's changes in how refuse is put out overnight, and how refuse is constantly available for rats, there's going to be a rat problem,” Matt Frye, an expert at New York State Integrated Pest Management program at Cornell University, previously told Patch.

City Council members who were behind the bills were bullish — or, perhaps, rattish — when it came to predictions of success.

“There’s no more Remy the Rat and no more Mickey Mouse on the streets of New York City,” said Council Member Shaun Abreu.

“This will keep our streets clean and starve rats of the midnight snacks that fuel their explosive growth.”