Rats could breed too quickly for NYC's successful new extermination method to keep up
Maiya Focht,Jenny McGrath
·3-min read
Rats could breed too quickly for NYC's successful new extermination method to keep up
Climate change is threatening a lot of species, but rats don't seem to mind a warming world.CreativeNature_nl / Getty Images
New York City is known for its rat problem.
Despite gains in extermination technology, climate change might make the future a more ratty place.
Warmer temperatures mean more rat sexy time and could lead to the spread of disease.
New York City has a new, highly lethal method for treating rats. But this, like the many methods it's tried to manage rat populations before, might not stop what some predict is a rat-filled future.
In fact, some experts have warned that New Yorkers are in for a rude awakening as the planet continues to warm, fostering an even more rat-friendly environment.
In a normal year, rat populations naturally fluctuate. Rats tend to avoid reproducing in cold weather, Jason Munshi-South, a biologist and associate professor at Fordham University, told Insider.
Rat sightings have increased in New York since the pandemic.Anadolu Agency/Contributor/Getty Images
But if the world continues warming, it might not get cold enough to slow rat reproduction, which means the rodents could theoretically continue reproducing more months out of the year, increasing the population overall."It's going to be an issue," Munshi-South said, "especially in northern cities like New York City. Our winters just aren't very cold, anymore."
Rats on the riseEfforts to control the rat population have highly mixed results.Mirrorpix/Contributor/Getty Images
By running his own surveys with exterminators around the city, Corrigan concluded, "there are more rats. The question we don't know is: Is it 20% more rats? Is it 36.6%? Empirically, we'll probably never get that answer," he said.
Munshi-South also witnessed this trend. "Last year, year before, I was seeing flowers in bloom in December. And you'd see rat babies, young rats, running around. In previous years, it would've been cold by then and rats would've stopped reproducing," in NYC, he told Insider.
What more rats could mean for humans
Rats
In addition to whatever personal reactions you might have to an increase in the rat population, there's another serious matter at hand – the spread of disease.
In a 2020 study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, veterinarians found that rodents, including rats and mice, were responsible for 61% of diseases spread by animals.
Over a 15-year period, there had only been 57 cases of leptospirosis reported in New York, making 2021 an especially high year. A health department spokesperson told Insider that climate change was likely a factor in the outbreak.
As long as we continue to have problems managing waste in the city, and as long as the world continues warming, Corrigan told The Guardian, we're fighting a losing battle.
"We are at war but we don't have weapons to fight the war," Corrigan said. "We need to rethink our whole system of doing things."
A newlywed on her honeymoon in The Bahamas was killed by a large shark while paddleboarding in the water near the five-star resort where she was staying.
The discovery solves a long-standing mystery about whether these creatures are ovoviviparous, meaning they can lay eggs inside their bodies and give birth to live young.
In a quiet field in eastern England a vast heat pump generates enough warmth to supply houses throughout a historic village, a pilot project testing ways to spur renewable energy use in a country that is falling behind its net zero targets. Resembling a large agricultural site, with gleaming silver water vats, the heat pump produces water hot enough to feed existing domestic systems, removing the need for costly home retrofits. A 60-year funding scheme removed upfront costs.
These drone pictures show the aftermath of a flooded residential park that saw dozens of elderly residents forced to flee their homes. Emergency services were called to Primrose Hill Residential Park in Charlton Adam, Somerset, last night (Mon) to reports of severe flooding. There were concerns for the welfare of around 100 residents with many of the caravans on site flooded and others had lost electricity and water supplies. All the residents were checked over and many had to be extricated to dry land alongside their pets for further care and assistance. Aerial images taken this morning (Tues) after the rescues show water still engulfing around 30 caravans on the site. Among the large number of search teams to be deployed to help in the rescue was Wiltshire Search and Rescue. It's understood that water rescue specialists were initially alerted to the incident at around 9pm, with the peak of the flooding in the early hours of the morning overnight before levels began to drop. A spokesperson said: "On arrival, we were briefed about an emerging issue at a caravan park, with flood water up to 5’ deep in places, and the welfare of around 100 residents was unknown. Some of the caravans were flooded, and others had lost electricity or water supplies. "The five teams deployed and worked alongside the fire service to locate, assess, and where required extricate the mainly elderly residents and pets in boats. "Once back on dry land they were checked over by paramedics at a casualty collection point and then taken to a place of safety. "We train to the same flood rescue standards as all the emergency services in the UK. The importance of this was massively apparent last night; despite having never previously met the vast majority of those involved before, we were able to work together seamlessly, confidently and efficiently." Involved in the rescue was two flood teams who were rapidly formed consisting of Lowland Rescue volunteers from Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire, who were initially sent to a holding area at Yeovil police station. There they joined up with Mountain Rescue colleagues from Exmoor Search & Rescue who had also been tasked. Witnesses said the flood peaked overnight at waist height for residents and with the only way out blocked there was no option other than to use the boats. Footage this morning showed much of the site still underwater with an estimated 30 caravans impacted. A woman, who turned up to try to help her elderly relatives living on the site, said that police stopped her from accessing the area. "When I turned up last night my mum and dad were so distressed, really scared. "But the police had closed the road and it was too dangerous to get closer. "They said they had the situation under control. "We came back at 8am and spoke to some workers, they said everyone was accounted for and helped us get access to check in with them and they were okay thank God." One observer said: "You can see how bad it was just from the pictures this morning. It must have been a worrying time for everyone involved."
A US woman has died after being attacked by a shark while paddleboarding in The Bahamas. Police said the victim in her 40s was with a male relative when the incident happened near a luxury resort in New Providence. Fatal shark attacks are extremely uncommon but there have been two others in recent years in The Bahamas.
Moths have terrorised British homes for years, eating their way through hundreds of pounds worth of clothes, carpets and furniture. Since mothballs were banned in 2008 over concerns about their toxicity, their numbers have multiplied.
