New York City is considering giving contraceptives to rats to control their numbers and apparently, it’s ‘better than pizza’.
As the city continues its 200-year-long battle with rats, the state’s authorities have realised that killing them is not an effective solution.
But despite previously trying contraceptives, advancements in pest control have led to the City Council to try again, and a new bill will see the city’s health department distribute salty pellets that sterilise both male and female rats as part of a pilot.
The programme will cover two neighbourhoods within ‘rat mitigation’ zones and cover at least 10 city blocks.
The move comes after lawmakers put an end to using poison following the death of Flaco, New York’s beloved Eurasian eagle-owl, who died from consuming rat poison.
City Democratic council member Shaun Abreu introduced the bill and said this attempt will be more effective.
‘We believe that we need to take a shock-and-awe approach to the rat problem by throwing everything we have at it,’ he said.
‘Birds of prey shouldn’t have to eat rats that have rodenticide.’
Rats are known to be prolific breeders, and a population can turn from two rats to around 1,250 in one year. Rat pregnancies only last 21 to 23 days, and each rat produces around three to six litters of up to 12 babies in its lifetime.
However, animal fertility control company Senestech estimates two surviving rats can turn into 15,000 descendants in a year.
And it’s estimated there are close to three million rats in New York City.
Mr Abreu has worked with Dr Loretta Mayer, a scientist who created ContraPest, a rat contraceptive that transit officials said has shown promising results when used in the subway.
She said the pellets are full of fat and salt, and were so delicious that rats preferred them to digging through the trash.
‘It’s better than pizza,’ she said.
In 2015, a New York City rat earned global stardom for its determination and ambition when dragging an entire slice of pizza down steps into the subway.
The contraception works by targeting the ovarian function in female rats and disrupting sperm cell production in male rats.
Dr Mayer said the pellets cost around $5 a pound to make, but the greatest challenge will be generating enough pellets to distribute them more broadly.
Mr Abreu said past attempts at rat control in New York City have been unsuccessful because officials were not persistent enough. Or, he said, they did not pair schemes with better-protected rubbish, instead of simple binbags that rats can easily gnaw through.
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