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NYC Launches 'Rat Information Portal' With Hotspot Maps
Posted by Gizmodo US Edition at 3:40 AM on November 1, 2008
NYC's new "Rat Information Portal" is being billed as "a one-stop resource website for New Yorkers' rat prevention needs." In addition to tips on how to control rat populations, the website also supplies an interactive "Rat Map" with data on inspections, violations, compliance, exterminations, and cleanups for any property in the city going back three years. Basically, it is a hotspot map for creepy vermin within the city. The idea is to put pressure on property owners who are slow to address their growing rat problems and give everyday citizens the tools they need to fight back. That's right folks...NYC has declared war against the rats. [Rat Information Portal via SFGate]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
info
Posted November 3, 2008 2:22 AM
Excellent start in NY at gaining information on where their problems are located. Believe they'll find what they already know, rats are everywhere in the city. New York has taken an approach of trying to clean up the city to control rats. With all the sources of food and abundant habitat that is going to be a long and impossible war to win.
Most cities use an approach to rodent control also refferred to as "Whack-A-Rat". If you have seen the arcade game you will understand the similarity. A caller complains about rats, the city responds usually by using some granular rodenticide. This is reactionary rodent control and will do little if anything to control rodents. The alternative is to get serious and implement a real plan. Go ProActive. This involves using methodically placed rodent boxes to significantly impact the population.
Why have cities not taken this approach before? One city had and it worked very well but implementing it was chaos because of the inspections required for the boxes to work. They did not have the technology to implement it correctly. We now have a system to accomplish that and more called the U-Trap-It Pest Management Service System it acts as the central command center verifying, recording, and analyzing the pest plan efforts. The system has been protecting food processing and other pest sensitive industries for over fourteen years around the World. It has also been in use in municipal rodent control where it has reduced rodent complaint calls over 90%. Of those remaining complaints, 90% are someone complaining about their neighbor's overflowing garbage tote.
That is success and it can be done anywhere today.
EricAlder
Posted 5:23 AM 1/11/08
Willard rides again!
EricAlder
anonymousmonk
Posted 5:22 AM 1/11/08
I love my pet rats. They beat out all the other small pets by a longshot.
anonymousmonk
tande04
Posted 5:21 AM 1/11/08
I thought it was going to be a story about making each rat a wi-fi repeater blanketing the city in wi-fi.
That would be awesome.
tande04
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 5:21 AM 1/11/08
@Noobs-R-Us: No, they can't cook but they can be cooked..
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 5:08 AM 1/11/08
@jcrockerman:Well I'm not sure where you were but I was just in mid-town this past Sunday and there was nary a rat in sight..
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 5:07 AM 1/11/08
@92BuickLeSabre: They're just jealous that they don't have enough rats of their own..
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Noobs-R-Us
Posted 5:05 AM 1/11/08
You mean they can't cook like Remy in Ratatouille???
Noobs-R-Us
utube2007
Posted 5:03 AM 1/11/08
@Redwraithvienna: yep thats pretty much it the rats won.
utube2007
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 5:01 AM 1/11/08
We've got eleventy-trillion sources of news in this city.
I'm really disappointed this got picked up by SF Gate.
Hmmmm...must be a competing-liberal-enclave-smear-campaign....
92BuickLeSabre
jcrockerman
Posted 5:00 AM 1/11/08
I went to visit NYC earlier this year.....and there were RATS everywhere!!! It was effin amazing!!! :D
jcrockerman
Nintenboy01
Posted 5:00 AM 1/11/08
@bbfreak: He may have to move to Jersey.
Nintenboy01
bbfreak
Posted 4:59 AM 1/11/08
@Nintenboy01: Hah! Awesome!
bbfreak
skrunchy
Posted 4:54 AM 1/11/08
31st and broadway corner parking lot. dont mess!!!!! haha they all come out at night!
skrunchy
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 4:52 AM 1/11/08
The rats and cockroaches are going to get all medieval on each other in a Predator vs Aliens throw down with NYC as their battlegrounds.
I'm not sure which side will win but we'll all be losers in the end...
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Redwraithvienna
Posted 4:50 AM 1/11/08
Why do i belive that ratto uo there is right and NYC has lost the war before it even began.
Redwraithvienna
Nintenboy01
Posted 4:48 AM 1/11/08
Splinter had better run and hide!
Nintenboy01
alowishus
Posted 5:33 AM 1/11/08
OMG that's a CUTE rat.
alowishus
HenryRayker
Posted 5:28 AM 1/11/08
@anonymousmonk: Agreed.
HenryRayker
EricAlder
Posted 6:13 AM 1/11/08
@Hiphopopotamus: And hippos.
(Just kidding - love hippos!)
EricAlder
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 6:08 AM 1/11/08
@Hiphopopotamus: And roaches.
Hiphopopotamus
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 6:08 AM 1/11/08
@Hiphopopotamus: And bedbugs.
Hiphopopotamus
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 6:08 AM 1/11/08
Fuck the rats, they stay outdoors for the most part... lets repeal the ban on DDT and take care of the mice.
Hiphopopotamus
propertius
Posted 6:00 AM 1/11/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another du...: Well ... actually we do. SF is just way behind NYC in cleanliness initiatives.
propertius
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the
Posted 6:33 AM 1/11/08
@EricAlder: Hippos account for more than twice the attacks accounted for crocodiles. We must declare war on this obese water horse.
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the
Posted 6:32 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...: The same is true for roaches. If you have poor conditions in your kitchen, like lots of dark moist places, they generally never go away, no matter how much poison you put down. Chalk and bug bombs are only bandaid solutions. Keeping things dry, and using slipping bay leaves in hidden crevices usually works to keep them away.
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the
Posted 6:31 AM 1/11/08
@Hiphopopotamus: Problem with bedbugs is that they're more resilient to poisons. It'll work for a little while, then they develop a resistance to it and come back. The only way to deal with them is to make sure your environment is not suitable for them.
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the
Posted 6:29 AM 1/11/08
@jcrockerman: You went all the way to NYC just to eat at Taco Bell? Might I direct you to the visitors' center?
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead
jdickson87
Posted 6:26 AM 1/11/08
@Nintenboy01: Ouch, I pity him.
jdickson87
Blakamin
Posted 6:57 AM 1/11/08
@anonymousmonk: Yup
Blakamin
CraziestGadgets.com
Posted 6:54 AM 1/11/08
hotspot map...lol. as if you would be able to see any part of Manhattan past the 10,000 rat icons on the map. there's a great book on NYC rats, more interesting than you'd think:
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
CraziestGadgets.com
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 6:51 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine: ?? No actually I went to see a show. I didn't eat in the city, although I did the weekend before that at Ted's Montana Grill, where I enjoyed a nice medium rare ribeye. No Taco Bell for me thanks. I'm making a run from the border
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
propertius
Posted 7:27 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...: Also they don't like breezy conditions, so ventilation helps (at least when it's not winter). Reminds me of a Columbia U. building (one of the "roach motels") I stayed in once at 113th + B-way. Never saw so many roaches - all sizes and at all hours day and night.
Who knows? - maybe they can train rats to go after b-bugs and roaches.
propertius
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 7:25 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...: Actually, DDT was incredibly effective at killing bedbugs, which is why they were virtually non-existent for decades until DDT was banned.
Hiphopopotamus
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the
Posted 7:48 AM 1/11/08
@propertius: Get a swarm of house centipedes. They'll eat the roaches. Too bad you'd then be stuck with a swarm of horribly terrifying, fast-moving 30-legged monsters.
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead
propertius
Posted 8:23 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...: Funny you should mention centipedes. I had some come out of an orchid plant when I watered it, and they colonized. They are mostly nocturnal, and I still see them (or their babies) wandering around from time to time.
propertius
anti-hello-kitty
Posted 10:10 AM 1/11/08
@propertius: Really? I rarely hear anyone complain of either a rat or roach problem in SF, where the people in NYC say that they see rats and have to be extra careful about roaches...
anti-hello-kitty
Metron4
Posted 12:05 PM 1/11/08
"I had declared a war against rats."
Metron4
AubreyStheno
Posted 1:14 AM 2/11/08
Was in china town a while back on a late night drunken binge. A buddy kicked a dumpster and a SEA of rats poured onto the street. My girlfriend and I were perched on a mailbox watching them flow by---it was like something from Revelations in the bible, or a CGI scene in a film. Now I'm in baltimore and waging my own private war against the liitle buggers (and when I say little, I actually mean possum-sized).
AubreyStheno
bahalana
Posted 1:43 AM 3/11/08
I'll take rats any day over the giant flying cockroaches we have down here. At least the rats are smart enough not to crawl in bed with you...
bahalana
x23
Posted 2:00 AM 3/11/08
um....
[www.somethingawful.com]
x23
timak
Posted 7:33 AM 1/11/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another du...:
Looking through Ted's Montana Grill menu I see that Beer Can Chicken is about the closest thing to actual "Montana" food. If it were real Montana authentic food they would have "Beer up the butt chicken"
timak