Based on complaints pouring into Boston's 311 system, we are a city overrun by rats, giant ones, spilling out of holes, shrubs and people's toilets, roaming the streets like they own the joint. Case in point, a complaint from Athens Street in South Boston:
Rats the size of small dogs down here. Please help!!!! There is a posse of them strolling the Lower End like they were here before the yuppies. I'm pretty sure one of them had a knife in his socks. Send help!!!!
Brook Avenue in Roxbury is also having issues with rodents of unusual size:
It's so bad I don't even want to let my puppy go outside. These rats are the size of bunnies and cats. This is becoming a health issue here.
A resident of Shannon Street in Brighton filed a plea for help:
There are rats going through our sidewalks, streets and yards day and night. I have reported this before, as have my neighbors and we got pamphlets about pest control left on our doors. This problem extends is over blocks and streets. We've never seen it like this and believe it is in direct relation to all the construction in the area. Our children play outside and are screaming from the rats constantly running by. This is unsafe! Please help
Down by the Joyce Kilmer Lower School in West Roxbury, a resident reports:
Rats everywhere, under cars under porch running across the road on the sidewalk there are babies adults tons of rats in this neighborhood
Meanwhile, from Hancock Street on Beacon Hill comes a disturbing report:
Constituent reports that she has noticed rats around the yard and property, and they started to come thru the sewer to the toliet.
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
Comments
Apocalypse Now
By BlackKat
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:13am
My car in Brighton keeps having all the wiring destroyed by rats. $2,000+ so far. My 311 ticket from months ago, unresolved. Traps and repellent do not work. The parks department has yet to even go near the rat warren they are coming from which I clearly pointed out in my 311 report. Need napalm.
Solutions from other Rat Cities
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:46am
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/chinese-d...
They look pretty cool, too. Doesn't even obscure your street sticker. Might need a little clear window for your license plate, though.
[img]https://bisura.com/uploads/n/Nezaretchi/da6e66dcbc...
Amazon also has solutions to keep out nature's little capitalists.
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4...
Walk over to the post office
By Eastie Cat
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 5:40pm
Walk over to the post office on meridian street in East Boston anytime after dusk there are always rats scattering from the shrubbery just outside the post office.
My neighbor feeds the rats
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:15am
She puts out a big bowl of rice every morning on the ground for birds, squirrels, and rats. When I spoke to here son about it (she doesn't speak English) and he translated , she started screaming at me in her language. Apparently she thought I was blaming her for rats in the neighborhood. So that went well.
I've filed several 311 complaints but if the city took any action, it didn't stop her from doing what she's doing.
My only solution is to place several rat bait boxes around my yard. And someone is feeding from my boxes. I don't know if its mice or rats. They both live around here. I know that the poison eventually works its way through the food chain and may affect predatory birds but I have to do what I have to do.
Please don't
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/16/2020 - 9:53am
This kills the raptors that would otherwise help your situation.
Rats go where there's food
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:18am
Early in the pandemic, rats were dying in vacant areas of the city where there were no longer any commuters, restaurants were shut, and trash was way down. Now they're in more residential areas without restaurants.
Cambridge: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/03/03/...
NYC: https://gothamist.com/news/move-over-pizza-rat-her...
Paging Cary Elwes
By Parkwayne
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:42am
He could deal with this problem.
Nah
By fungwah
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:57am
He doesn't believe they exist.
HA!
By Parkwayne
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:55am
You, a fool: Cary Elwes doesn't believe in Rodents of Unusual Size
Me, a wise man: You're confusing the actor with the part he played!
Good Luck
By SouthSt
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:04am
You know, if you see exactly three rats in seven days --no more and no fewer--- it's very good luck.
Its so bad
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:10am
Subway rats are leaving for the suburbs via the commuter rail.
By-product of all the construction in the area(s).
By Section77
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:18am
Developer digs big hole in ground, rats have to find somewhere else to be.
So much for safe spaces!
By certaindamage
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:28am
Thanks for the anxiety dream fuel. As if that tank wasn't already full... ;-P
What the hell do you even do
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 12:35pm
What the hell do you even do if a rat comes through your toilet!!
you flush it back down
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 9:00pm
... and you ALWAYS CLOSE THE LID
You move to the burbs like I
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 9:46pm
You move to the burbs like I did when a rat came through my toilet in the South End
Well
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 08/16/2020 - 9:54am
The rats have moved to the burbs, too.
Chase it around until it
By anon
Fri, 08/14/2020 - 9:25pm
Chase it around until it leaves the house.
same as always
By Refugee
Fri, 08/14/2020 - 9:59pm
1. Poop
2. Flush
Shannon St
By Kaz
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 1:05pm
The Shannon Street one is true. I don't know if they're all coming from the St. E's construction or the synagogue taking forever to build its baths, or the few semi-abandoned properties due to a fire and a rehab project moving slowly or what. But there are definitely more around here than previously.
One of my idiot neighbors even "helped" by pouring gasoline down some rat holes he found. Sigh. It'd be nice if the city could bring in some professionals.
What are the causes?
By Daan
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 1:25pm
Construction projects. Dig into the earth and wherever rats are living they will move on to find a new home. Has the garbage pickup changed any with more food left on the street? Or has there been less food on the street from less people buying food and then throwing on the street napkins and whatnot?
Less food
By perruptor
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 7:08pm
Restaurant dumpsters were a reliable buffet for the rats. With so many eateries closed and scaled-down, the food supply is diminished, and the rats are getting desperate. It's happening in all the cities.
Construction
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 2:42pm
1,000%.
I've been in my current place since Sept. 2015, and never had any rodent issues. A 38 unit monstrosity starts going up literally spitting distance from my back porch last year, and a major rat problem starts in the basement within a few months.
From what I've been told, surrounding neighbors have had similar issues. One of them actually has their place up for sale now, and I was told another tried to sell and ended up pulling it off the market with no luck (obviously not a redevelopment opportunity).
A lot of street digging ,
By Eastie Cat
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 5:45pm
A lot of street digging , pipe replacements throughout all neighborhoods in Boston is the real culprit,
A lot of that
By ChrisInEastie
Mon, 08/17/2020 - 11:43am
is directly tied to construction. Take a drive down Maverick St., from the Massport gate to the Square, and you'll see a pattern to all of the road patches and uneven pavement: A clear path leading from the road to new and ongoing construction in pretty much every case.
I have been doing everything
By dotORnot
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 3:25pm
I have been doing everything to try and keep them out of my yard so makes me feel better that everyone is struggling. Been in Dorchester my whole life even lived on dot ave for some time and have never seen it this bad.
Theory: food supply is disrupted
By uhub-fan
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 6:46pm
Over the weekend a friend in Portsmouth, NH was telling us rats were showing up in the houses away from downtown. His theory is that with so many restaurants shut down or not doing as much biz as before, there's not as much food waste and the rat population is searching further afield.
Coronavirus contributes to greater rats
By Daan
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 7:34pm
And what are rats for good? Bubonic plague and other diseases. If anyone thinks the bubonic plague is no longer a problem. Well, it is. Bubonic plague still erupts in different parts of the world; the last major eruption was in India in 1994.
To the Victor go the spoils....
By Robert Winters
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 7:38pm
The building next to mine in Cambridge has been a Rat Smorgasbord for several years due to incredibly bad trash management. They put lots of those rat bait stations disguised as rocks and the rats just avoided them. Then the exterminators invited Victor to live under the deck boards.
Snap, snap, snap. I haven't seen or heard a rat for several weeks now.
[img]http://rwinters.com/images/victor-trap400.gif[/img]
Rat in the toilet
By anon
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 8:04pm
might tickle one's fancy.
Rozzie rats
By JB
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 10:01pm
Had never seen one in my Roslindale Neighborhood of 9 years until a week ago. It was HUGE! No nearby construction so I don’t know where it came from or what the food source is. Eep.
Whose responsible for the rats on the T?
By Don't Panic
Thu, 08/13/2020 - 11:53pm
Every night when I go to the upper busway in Forest Hills Station I'll see one or two rats running from the decorative grasses by the bikeway onto the pedestrian walkway and towards the side gate where the T keeps equipment. They are not however of unusual size. Some nights when I miss my bus and sit on the wall near the grasses I can hear the running around in there. It's pretty creepy.
Add comment