Here are some of the more gripping factoids I learned from Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan:
- Most rats bites occur because a rat smells food residue on a child’s face and bites it. However, in 1979 a tugboat union strike caused garbage to pile up in NYC, fueling the rat population, and witnesses say a swarm of rats attacked a woman, who jumped in her car and drove off before the police (and media) could talk to her.
- Rats can have sex up to 20 times a day. They have a 21-day gestation period and litters of 8-10.
- How to estimate a Rat Population: The rule of thumb is, if you see 1 rat, there’s 10 more. If you see a rat during daytime, then you don’t know what the hell you’ve got.
- For the love of all that’s sane in the world: Do not try to solve the rat infestation in your basement by throwing a cat down there. The only thing that works is poison, and lots of it. Guns also work; a surprising number of New Yorkers shoot rats.
- Rat’s top 3 favorite foods are scrambled eggs, mac and cheese, and cooked corn. Least fave is supposedly apples. However, like humans, the food preferences of rats is geographically based. A rat living off a Chinese food dumpster might consume rice with more vigor than a rat behind a deli. Rats living in Hispanic areas are more likely to eat spicy foods.
- In 19th century NYC, the world record in dog-on-rat fights was held by Jocko the Wonder Dog, who killed 100 rats in 5 minutes and 28 seconds. When Kit Burns (the Don King of rat fights) was taken to court by Henry Bergh (the founder of the ASPCA), Burns argued that rat fights were okay because rats weren’t animals, they were vermin. Everyone wanted rats dead anyway, why not have some fun?
Good book, written from the perspective of a journalist, not a scientist. I recommend it if you’re interested in the history of NYC. I was disappointed that Boston’s rat problem was scarcely mentioned, and at times Sullivan’s personal reflections on rats got a little boring. But I learned a lot from it… knowledge that I pass onto you, gentle reader.
One last thing: To be an ‘exterminator’ is to be an optimist. Call them ‘pest control operators.’
