The ‘ratpocalypse’ isn’t nigh, according to service call data
During March and April 2020, as New York City restaurants went dark and their dumpsters stood empty as a result of COVID-19, media outlets worried that “starving, cannibalistic” rats would take to the streets. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even offered tips for how to face hungry rodent masses. But there were no actual data to say whether the ratpocalypse was nigh. Now, there are. And the answer: New Yorkers are calling in fewer rats since the pandemic began, but in different places. “We had been hearing lots of headline-grabbing media stories,” but there were few numbers to back up the claims, says Jonathan Richardson. So the urban ecologist at the University of Richmond in Virginia and his colleagues gathered rat-related requests for public services in New York City and Tokyo. They also sent surveys out to pest control companies around the world. First, media outlets warn of the ratpocalypse...