Rats On Roosevelt Island F Train Subway Platform - What Can The MTA Do?
Gothamist reported that rats are boldly swarming New York City Subway platforms:
"People have seen them sitting on benches," says Andrew Albert, an MTA board member and chair of the NYC Transit Riders Council. "From what riders have told us, they appear to be getting bolder." That's the subway rat population he's talking about, which many commuters say is surging, at least according to an amNY article that's teeming with great quotes. "Next thing you know the doors are going to open and one is going to come on the train with us," one exterminator predicts....
Rats have even been seen on the Roosevelt Island subway platform. Last Wednesday, I received this message from a reader:
Any idea if MTA or anyone is going to do something about the rats on the subway platform?NBC New York reports that for rats the:
In the morning, I saw 2 rats running around the platform (Queens Bound side).
On the way home, I saw 3 rats running around the platform (again, Queens Bound side).
It is one thing to see rats on the subway track, but on the platform where people wait for the trains? That is disturbing.
... the main attraction in many subway stations is the room where trash is stored after it is collected from waste cans on the platform. He said sometimes the garbage can sit for days, becoming a gluttonous rat buffet.And rats typically live in the walls of the trash rooms, which are often located right on the train platforms.
"They're not down in that deep dark tunnel ... the rats are living in the walls behind that tile," Corrigan said.
A family of eight to 12 rats can make its home in one cinderblock, and every cinderblock in a wall can be occupied "much like we do with apartment buildings," he added.
That can mean as many as 150 rats live in the walls of one refuse room...
What can be done? The NY Times reported on a joint MTA/NYC Department of Health Study that offered:
...some practical advice. Nothing quite excites a rat like a station’s “refuse room,” a storage space for bags of garbage waiting to be hauled away. For rodents, the room is “a restaurant,” as Dr. Corrigan called it, and he recommended that the transportation authority install poison bait in the rooms for a more surgical strike. (Currently, the authority places poison only on the tracks.)
Entrances to the rooms should be guarded, Dr. Corrigan said, so rats cannot reach the food. He also suggested that transit officials invest in more high-tech trapping systems, although he said budget concerns would probably stymie such plans....
If you have any suggestions to get rid of the Roosevelt Island rats, email the MTA"s F Train Line General Manager.
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