The gear race looks set to return to New York.
A year after the coronavirus pandemic first occurred in which normal life was suspended, you have to make the rats of the city that also suffered think.
While restaurants and bars were closed and indoor dining was suspended when the city closed, a reliable food source for the rodent population of the Big Apple suddenly dried up.
But now that life is slowly returning to normal, the number of complaints against pests with a hotline in March also reported a rise of 80% compared to the same time last year.
There were 2,906 complaints in March. By comparison, it is even higher than those levels before the pandemic: In 2019, the city was 311 for complaints 2,395 for rodents, Bloomberg reports.
In mid-March, an Instagram user in New York posted a photo of a rat on a wish list. sign of bad things to come
By the end of January, when complaints from last year continued to increase, a TikTok user posted a video in New York of not one, but of two dead rats on the street.
Social media users have captured their views of the vermin and posted them online. This rat was spotted on a street in Brooklyn in March when calls to the city increased by 80 percent
Information from the city shows that the observation of rats and mice was significantly higher with most complaints in Brooklyn, followed by Manhattan and Queens.
“As things get more open, you will have more and more food available,” said Benjamin Hottel, an entomologist. “There will be more pressure on restaurants with rodents as their businesses increase.”
As expected, areas that were largely deserted during the pandemic, such as commercial premises, are now experiencing more rodent activity as workers return to officers.
But the closure of New York also changed the behavior of rats, as the pests that munched on the garbage of nearby restaurants were suddenly forced to find new food sources.
One person spotted a rat on a railing when they peeked out of Brooklyn’s window in February
Rats are once against being spotted along the platforms of the New York subway
A few rats were spotted on the tracks of the New York subway
As restaurants have closed, except for pick-up service, much less food waste is thrown away in the alleys or trash cans, which has driven the local rodent population in public to look for trash cans.
Many people have seen rats on social media accounts
Several rats could see running along a wall
In May, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning about “unusual or aggressive rodent behavior.”
‘There was this chaos with the rats. “They are trying to find out where the easiest food source is, as certain food sources have disappeared,” Hottel said.
Rats also suddenly became more active during the day and moved to residential areas where more food and waste could be found, but the creatures are expected to return to their more familiar behavior as life slowly returns to normal.
A restaurant is now closing all of a sudden, what happened to thousands not only in New York, but also coast to coast and around the world, and the rats that lived at that restaurant, in a place nearby, and maybe For decades, restaurant-dependent generations of rats, life no longer works for them, and they have only a few choices, ‘Corrigan told NBC News last year.
When hungry rats move to areas where food is still available, carnage ensues.
Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist who holds both a master’s degree and Ph.D. in rodents, pest management said rats that rely on homes for their food supply are still doing well
A rat has a trash can on its own in search of food in New York
‘It’s just like we’ve seen in the history of mankind, where people try to take over lands and enter them with military armies and literally fight to the death for whom the land is going to be conquered. And that’s what happens to rats, ‘said Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodent doctor who holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in the management of rodent pests, said.
A new ‘army’ of rats is coming in, and whichever army has the strongest rats will conquer the area. ‘
The fierce turf battles extend beyond just fights over grub – and often drive rats to eat each other.
“They are mammals just like you and me, and if you’re really hungry you are not going to act the same – usually you are going to act very badly,” he said.
“So these rats are fighting with each other, now the adults are killing the cubs in the nest and cannibalizing the cubs.”
In March, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would increase the number of garbage collections after services were reduced due to budget constraints during the pandemic.
Last year, in New Orleans, viral videos emerged of swarms of rats taking over roads and sidewalks in usually bustling neighborhoods such as the French Quarter (photo)