"Menacing Pests" Take Over Carroll Gardens
Residents of Luquer Street in Carroll Gardens say their block has been overrun by a fearless gang of rats. “They sit there and look at you; they are not afraid,” said Lisa Demaio. The culprit? The 11-story condo development on Luquer between Clinton and Hamilton. “This is a serious health and safety issue, and there…
Residents of Luquer Street in Carroll Gardens say their block has been overrun by a fearless gang of rats. “They sit there and look at you; they are not afraid,” said Lisa Demaio. The culprit? The 11-story condo development on Luquer between Clinton and Hamilton. “This is a serious health and safety issue, and there has been little to no response – until today,” said Alison Carrabba. The developer, Moses Gross, doesn’t deny the cause, but points out that it’s a typical result of demolition. “I don’t think [extermination] will help,” he said. “Rats are not something we can control.”
Rat Invasion Angers Nabe [NY Daily News]
Real funny Chuck E. Jeez.
I’d read a book about rats in nyc too. Those suckers are horrifying, especially when you seem them on the subway platform. They’ve got to over a foot long. They’re practically bigger than the average rat-dog in manhattan. Not to offend the rat-dog owners.
Try getting some attention from the Community Board – its on Baltic Street..they sometimes can get city’s ear and a little quicker action.
I protest! I am an upstanding member of the Brooklyn community ( in fact the country!) and I pay my taxes! this is my town! I’ve been here longer than you and what do I get? I get to live in subway tunnels, dark corners and basements. I get to eat garbage, get chased by cats and poisoned by people. No one cares that I am smart, I come in lots of colors and curly coats too. My property is always taken through eminent domain- does anyone care? NO! All I ever asked for was a bit of cheese, a little nest to lay my head and the chance to see my children grow up to be good little rats. Well, you won’t have Chuck.E. Jeez to kick around anymore! My pointy snout (adorably cute I’ve been told) and my bald tail (a little iffy on the cute) are outta here. I’m moving to Manhattan- they really know how to treat a rat!
Poor man’s fake expert – I can’t believe you just read a fascinating book about rats (!)
When all the construction began in downtown Brooklyn in the 90’s, my street saw a huge influx of rats running from the construction. They came into the buildings and one night the upstairs tenant awoke to find one sitting on the bed by his feet. You could hear him scream over 1/2 of Brooklyn! The rats are probably still there- I once saw about ten of them run from a garbage area.
How weird. I just finished reading this fascinating book on rats in NYC a day or so ago: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582344779/sr=8-2/qid=1144422681/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-5810410-5286450?%5Fencoding=UTF8. All I can say about Luquer is that I’m glad I live a good 15 blocks north of it. Outside of that, what the book asserted over and over is that rats care about one thing: eating. And that generally means eating garbage. If their food source goes away, they either start killing each other (yuck), go somewhere else where there’s food, or become so stressed they start dying off (check out Mr. Sidewalk). Now, you probably want the middle option, so you might have to get the whole block involved. Go over to Lowe’s and buy a ton of garbage cans that snap shut. Regular garbage cans can easily be gotten into. You need to make it impossible to get to the food. Get everyone to use them and maybe recruit some neighbors to make sure they’re shut. Because honestly, killing a few in traps will only make the remaining ones happier to stay, since it’s more food for them.
I can’t believe I just did an informational post about rat control.
This was an issue in the Slope a few years ago- 14 caught in a few days in the Park Slope Methodist Church yard where all of the kids played- at the time of all of the construction on 8th St. I am surprised on a website that is all about housing and “renewal”, the subject doesn’t come up more often…
memo: nyc has rats.
The cats, I mean rats, are in Clinton Hills too. Not as bad though. I can remember at least 3 scary encounters over the past 6 mths.
I lived in Wash D.C. also and remember running across these cats/rats also. It’s not just nyc; but I think it’s worse here.