The Problem Of Rodents In New York City

The other problem that has always existed since 1944: Rodents. Two distinct species of rodents were prevalent, the brown rat (Norway rat), and the black rat (ship rat, roof rat). By 2014 the city’s rat population of the city was dominated by the brown rat. An often-repeated statistic is that there are more rats than people in the five boroughs of New York City (8.4 million in 2014). However, a 2014 study by Jonathan Auerbach a PHD student in the Statistics Department at Columbia University, reported in the Royal Statistical Society's Significance magazine, estimated that there were closer to 2 million rats in the city.
In 2011, MTA started a new strategy, a pilot program of removing trashcans from subway stations that was intended to solve
the rodent problems, seemed like the side effect was reducing litter. Specifically, MTA officials state “the results of the Pilot do support the stated purpose to improve customer experience in stations by minimizing exposed trash bags.” I will explain more details in the chapter of case studies. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) rodentologist, who the MTA consulted about the Pilot Program, stated that he believed the Pilot Program would have minimal impact on the number of rodents in the system. At that time, a DOHMH official concluded that Transit did not manage its refuse problem well, primarily because refuse rooms at some locations were not adequately secured, and they provided a readily available source of food for the rats.