City working to address rat concerns on Green

Harp says presence of rodents is being taken seriously

NEW HAVEN — During a visit last month to the Community Outreach Center on Orchard Street, several elderly residents at the senior center told Mayor Toni Harp about a fourlegged nuisance they had started noticing around downtown.

The seniors told Harp they were seeing more and more rats while waiting near bus stops. The animals appeared “very well fed,” Harp said.

“I am really concerned about the number of rodents,” Harp said. “I think we have to get to the bottom of why there’s an increase.”

Harp said she’s received other complaints about rats, including about their presence on the city Green. She said Town Green Special Services District Executive Director Win Davis has told her it’s a problem. Harp said she has forwarded complaints she has received to Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter and the city’s Public Health Department.

“Every now and then, the rat population does seem to increase, but I think we need to figure out why,” Harp said. “We recognize it and we’re going to try and do something about it.”

Harp wants to reach out to Yale University’s School of Forestry for ideas on how to address the issue. She said she also wants to learn more about natural predators that might help reduce the rodent population. Improving trash maintenance is another possibly method of keeping the rat population at bay.

City Parks Director Rebecca Bombero said the city has a standing contract with Connecticut Pest Elimination for for pest control at many of city parks. She said the rat’s presence downtown is generally, “not great,” in comparison to other parts of the city.

“Rodent problems are not unusual in a city,” Bombero said. “We have seen an increase in the number of complaints we’ve been receiving, which we are addressing through our contract with Connecticut Pest.”

The extermination company provides bait and traps for rodents year round. The city pays Connecticut Pest about $750 a month for pest control services for city parks targeting rodents and insects. The September invoice shows the company served several locations around the city, including the city Green. The city has 120 parks and 2,200 acres, Bombero said, though the contract doesn’t cover all parks in the city.

Bombero said rats are an issue that “ebb and flow throughout the season.”

“We take everybody’s complaints seriously,” Bombero added. “If it’s important to residents, it’s important to us.”

Connecticut Pests Elimination owner Mike Lipsett said wildlife and rodent populations have been growing in the past five to seven years. Certain chemicals once used to keep their populations in check are no longer in use, which Lipsett said contributed to the population growth.

Lipsett said he could not discuss specific details about their services with the city, but said generally, he has a good working relationship here. He said city officials will often call his company shortly after receiving public complaints.

By far their biggest concerns in public environments, such as parks, is safety. Exterminators must be tactical about where they place bait boxes containing rodenticide, or rat poison, placing them near burrows or in concealed areas. Lipsett said by law, these boxes have to be anchored or weighted down and require key access to prevent tampering.

Most exterminators won’t use trap boxes in public environments, since there’s a risk of catching other critters or harming people. Rodent control involves interior and exterior control, since rodents usually have a small range, Lipsett said.

“When you’re doing rodents, you want to take care of rodents. You’re not looking to harm squirrels,” Lipsett said, “Every company, your whole job and concern is safety first.”

Rodents can pose a threat to humans because they transmit bacteria, Dr. Howard Selinger, Quinnipiac University Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine chairman of Family Medicine, said Friday. Selinger said rats can transmit rare diseases such as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or more common bacteria such as salmonella.

Historically, rats were blamed for the spreading of the plague during the Middle Ages. Rats carried fleas that spread the disease, though Selinger said this disease is seldom seen in this part of the world.

“Rodent infections are rare but serious when they occur,” Selinger said. Transmission would most likely occur when a person comes in direct contact with rat droppings, either through contaminated dust or by consuming contaminated food.

The state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has suggested guidelines for addressing rodent issues. Diane Jorsey, acting supervisor for the pesticide management program at DEEP, said they recommend a technique known as integrated pest management.

“The idea is to minimize conditions that are conducive to pest populations,” Jorsey said. “For rats, as an example, rats have to have water every day. They don’t usually wander much further than about 300 feet from their water source.”

Eliminating a water source could eliminate the presence of the rodents. Making sure there’s no pooled water sources is one way to remove a potential water source for rats.

Keeping grassy areas well-manicured is helpful too, since rats can take cover in weedy areas. Weeds can give them both cover and source of sustenance.

Heaping trash piles aren’t helpful either, Jorsey said.

“The best approach is to first eliminate the conditions as much as possible,” Jorsey said. “Then usually, a mixed approach is probably the best, but almost always there’s some form of rodenticide (poison) to help minimize the population.”

New Haven is far from topping the “rattiest” city lists in the nation, at least by one unofficial metric.

A list compiled by Orkin, the pest control company, placed New Haven and Hartford 17th on the country’s rattiest cities list released Tuesday. According to Orkin’s release, the rankings are based on rodent treatment from the company from Oct. 1, 2015, to Sept. 30, 2016. Chicago topped the list for the third straight year.

Lipsett, whose company serves cities including Hartford, Bridgeport and New Britain, said New Haven’s rodent problem isn’t any worse or better than other cities.

New Haven isn’t quite in crisis mode. It’s not close to declaring a state of emergency over rat infestation, as Hartford did in September 1999. The New York Times reported in November 2000 that rats had “flooded,” the city, prompting the declaration.

However, for city residents like Pablow Moreau, the rat issue has grown far beyond just a nuisance.

“It’s a 911 crisis,” Moreau said. “This is not a nuisance. This is a 911 crisis. The city is being invaded by rats.”

Moreau said the last straw for him came recently when he was waiting near the heavily trafficked bus stops near Chapel and Temple streets. There were so many rats, Moreau said, that he fled to the nearby Chipotle.

“I said ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t wait here,’ ” Moreau said. “I could see them running.”

The rats he saw were similar in size to those described to Harp.

“Put two iPhone Pluses together and put a tail on that. That’s how big they are,” Moreau said, referencing Apple’s 6-inch by 3-inch smartphones.

There’s a larger issue at hand for Moreau. He said many areas downtown are simply too filthy, attracting the rodents and keeping them in the area. He would like more cleanup in the area, which he said is frequented by residents, college students and people from all walks of life.

“Everybody comes to downtown New Haven. Everyone, at some point,” Moreau said. “It needs to be a clean environment.”

Catherine Avalone / Hearst Connecticut Media Several people near the New Haven Green on Saturday said they saw rats in and near the glass bus stop enclosures on Chapel Street.

Catherine Avalone / Hearst Connecticut Media The New Haven Green. Several area residents said Saturday they had seen rats in or near glass bus stop enclosures there.