In the city’s war on subway rats, the rodents are winning.
Half of the subway lines in Lower Manhattan are overrun with rats, or have conditions like track litter and holes in the wall that lure them, said Dr. Robert Corrigan, the city’s top rodentologist.
In early 2008, Corrigan led the first pilot rat study of the subway.
“They’re not down in that deep dark tunnel,” said Corrigan. “They live in the walls behind the tile.”
Inside the hollow cinderblocks, “they divide it up much like we do to apartments, with one family living in one block of concrete,” he said. A rat “family” can be 8-12 rats living in one hollow concrete block and hundreds of rats can live in one wall.
Putting poison on tracks doesn’t fix the fundamental problems, he said. The refuse rooms (where subway cleaners store trash) are the top attraction; “rats look at them as a restaurant,” said Corrigan. The MTA has to improve its cleaning, sealing and baiting of refuse rooms, he said. Riders have to stop littering, he added.
“We’re supportive of the recommendations but need to evaluate the costs,” said MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz.
Corrigan said the city’s and MTA’s uncertain finances are worrisome.
“We are on a skeleton crew to do this,” said Corrigan of the fight on rats. “And we’re at a slower pace than we were in 2009.”
