Rats have always been a part of life for New Yorkers. But, in recent years, their presence has taken on unprecedented proportions. Reporting.
Entire neighborhoods in New York are now infested with rodents, like in Brooklyn. “They are everywhere… over more than five blocks in each direction”, indicates Matt Deodato, pest control, Wednesday in La Matinale de la RTS.
To eradicate them, he has a rather unusual method: he uses a machine that propels carbon monoxide through a pipe placed directly in the burrow. Most rodents suffocate to death underground. Those who nevertheless manage to get out, the exterminator kills them with a large rake.
Matt Deodato performs more than 30 surgeries each week. In New York, reports related to rats have increased by 60% over the past four years. According to experts, the causes are multiple: the wooden terraces installed by restaurants since the Covid-19, which have become rats’ nests, but also the city’s poor waste management.
A chief pest
The problem is such that Mayor Eric Adams has made rodent control a priority. “Everyone knows I hate rats! Many of us live in neighborhoods where rats think they rule the roost,” he said.
The city has therefore appointed a head rat exterminator and waste collection schedules have been modified.
>> Read more: New York names its first exterminator in chief
The strategy leaves some experts skeptical, like Matt Deodato: “The rats eat day and night, it doesn’t matter! It’s a war. Battles can be won, wars can’t be won. There are too many of them, outnumber us. “
This “war” is costing New York millions of dollars a year.
Loubna Anaki/exercise
2023-05-11 07:00:00
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