Rats are one of the more disturbing guests which can make their way into a home in the Winter. | Jans Canon / Flickr
Rats are one of the more disturbing guests which can make their way into a home in the Winter. | Jans Canon / Flickr
The Cheeseheads might live in the next state north, but Chicago has the rats.
Chicago has earned the dubious distinction of being named the “rattiest” city in the country by Orkin for the third straight year, despite lawmakers spending upward of $10 million to fight the four-legged rodents.
Nearly 200,000 properties in Chicago have confirmed rat infestations, up from 50,000 in 2014. And although the city has been fighting back, adding millions of dollars and dozens of crews to project rodent abatement, the rats are winning.
“The rats are partying down the street every day,” Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. said in 2014, which saw a 30 percent increase in city employees who were put on the case.
Chicago now has 24 rat control workers and will add six more next year.
In 2016, Chicago set aside $10.2 million for the Department of Streets and Sanitation, and in 2017, Mayor Rahm Emanuel upped the ante another $1 million.
Yet the rat numbers continue to climb.
The budget is expected to go up another $1 million in 2018.
Rats populations grow for a number of reasons, including a growing human population, which means more garbage.
Then there’s construction. Noise and movement from construction forces rats from abandoned buildings or from underground out into the streets, where they are visible by the public.
Weather, infrastructure and even dog feces play a role in a city’s rat problem.
According to a joint study by the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, public education about how to protect property is key.
Some tips include cleaning up after your dog, keeping your trash cans covered and reporting any trash or rat problems to the city.
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