Washington Post – Amid stay-home restrictions set across the country to battle the spread of the novel coronavirus, many restaurants and cafes are closed or limited to takeout and delivery, and with the reduced sales, the restaurants’ trash bins are no longer overflowing with scrumptious leftovers hordes of rodents subsisted on. Finding slimmer pickings, critters have become more aggressive, prompting the [Center for Disease Control] to issue guidance on how to deter them.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been increased reports of rat cannibalism and infanticide in New York, as well as more rat complaints in residential areas — including in Chicago — as humans produce more food waste at home. Roving rat armies, including one caught on camera scavenging New Orleans’ empty streets, are concerning to the CDC, which says rodents can carry disease.
The CDC advises home and business owners to cover garbage cans, put bird and pet food out of reach and seal small holes rodents could access in buildings. If people follow established cleaning guidelines, they can avoid exposure to rodent-borne diseases, according to the agency.
Urban rodentologist Bobby Corrigan foresaw increased reports of aggressive rodents when the pandemic began. He said with restaurants closing, rats would need to adapt to find new food sources. In late March, he put out a call to other pest experts to share what they find surveying their areas.
Corrigan told The Post that a pest expert sent him a photo after a gruesome rat battle in Queens: A nest of rats had left to scrounge for food at their usual city block of restaurants but turned on each other when they couldn’t find enough scraps, Corrigan believes. A pile of rat limbs on the sidewalk was all that remained.
This is how I’d like to imagine that war between rats went down:
Those guys were awfully tan for a movie made in the early ’60s. But in a year with pandemics, murder hornets and every other suboptimal situation we could hope for, it seems like “cannibalistic super-rats” was next on the dart board of outcomes.
Even though I’m originally from New York City and was born in a Chinese “year of the rat,” I do not have a lot of love for rats. I wouldn’t say I’m “scared” of them per se. But I’ve definitely felt pangs of something indescribable inside when I’ve seen them on the subway tracks, or worse, when they scurry around a street at night.
That said, I kind of feel some sympathy for them. I’m sure there’s all sorts of metaphors you can unpack here about how these adverse times have ruined us all. But here’s mine: these rats grew accustomed to a certain lifestyle, a place in the food chain and a sense of normalcy. And now they’re adrift with what they knew of the world. Maybe if they worked together, they could get past this and find innovative ways to get results. But, because they lack the compassion or selflessness that a herd requires to be successful, they all suffer. Some will make it out alive, others irreparably damaged, all forever changed. They could thrive in spite of adverse conditions but it may be too late now. That’s the thing about rats. They don’t learn, they don’t listen, and they’ll rip each other apart in a quest to fulfill their own needs.
Narrator: “In the end, we were the real cannibalistic super rats”
Makes you yearn for a simpler time in the hungry rat game:
It really felt like we turned a corner between Pizza Rat, the rise in rats as pets and Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But our casual alliance with the rats appears to be over. Sad times. Sadder times if one of them eats you to the bone because these rats are no longer runnin’ on Dunkin.
NYC rat photo by Wikimedia
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