Chicago falls to No. 6 in Terminix list of Most Rodent-Infested Cities
Chicago is making improvements on the list of America's rattiest cities.
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Chicago is making improvements on the list of America's rattiest cities.
Unlike other communities that used third parties to deploy the bait, program leaders in Albany Park want to get neighbors involved.
Chicago's rodent problem is well known, but a new pilot program testing rat birth control to curb the population in problem areas is underway to help rein it in.
For 10 years, going back to the inception of the rankings, the pest control company Orkin rated Chicago the rattiest city in America.
Families said a rat infestation is plaguing their Jefferson Park neighborhood, and they want to know why the city isn't doing more to help. They've even resorted to trapping the rats themselves.
Scientists, not content to let a not-so-living legend lie, have determined that the viral Chicago "rat hole" was probably actually made by a different kind of rodent.
The privately funded "Rat Contraceptive Pilot" uses non-toxic contraceptive pellets to reduce the rat population in Chicago. Its next test neighborhood is Lincoln Park.
Crews will install bait boxes with rat birth control in alleys behind several major stretches of Wicker Park and Bucktown.
For the 10th year in a row, Chicago was ranked as the rattiest city in America. Los Angeles was ranked the second rattiest city in the nation, with New York coming in third.
Chicago officials attended a first-of-its-kind summit in New York on rodent mitigation.
"Cute, funny, wacky. Chicago, right?"
"We are kind of taking ideas from, you know, other cities like Chicago."
