Exclusive | Rats are surging this summer heres how to keep NYCs unofficial mascot at bay: They eat through sheet rock
Tourists won’t be the only thing hogging the Big Apple sidewalks this summer.When people think of New York City rats, they usually picture woodchuck-size vermin darting through alleyways, or bursting through basement ceilings a la “Ratatouille.”They’re not wrong.During a recent ride-along with veteran exterminator Favio Ulloa, The Post didn’t spot a single rodent —we must’ve gotten lucky.But our lack of sightings wasn’t evidence that they weren’t there.
What was discovered was the almost imperceptible cracks in the wall they exploit, the poison used to dispatch them and the constant snake-and-mongoose battle between Gothamites and the city’s most resilient varmint — all telltale signs that we were in the presence of the city’s furry arch-nemesis“They have to [block the holes] with mesh,” said Ulloa, owner of Prestige Pest Services, as he points to gaps in the plumbing at an infested Bronx laundromat.“If you close an opening with just sheet rock, the rats eat through it.
They eat through sheet rock like paper.”By shadowing Ulloa, who has spent 25 years waging the war on rats, on a hot summer day, The Post was able to glean a behind-the-scenes look at why these beasts thrive in NYC, how to know if a rat problem is in one’s vicinity and what New Yorkers can do to keep our unofficial mascot at bay.According to experts, summer is when these fun-size squatters become especially active.“At the beginning of the season, we do see a hurricane season for rats,” Gil Bloom, the president of NYC extermination company Standard Pest Management, told The Post.“So you’re always going to see an increase in rodents and rodent activity as we head into summer.”The reasons are straightforward.
They breed more in warmer, but not scorching, weather, food is plentiful, and humans spend more time outdoors and are more likely to notice them, causing 311 complaints to climb.However, Bloom quipped that many supposed infestations could simply be the...