They’re seemingly synonymous with Baltimore City, even appearing on bumper stickers throughout the region.
But members of Baltimore City Council’s Health, Environment, and Technology committee would rather it not be that way and instead, held a meeting to discuss rat control on Wednesday morning. Council members discussed rat birth-control, an “opt-out” program and a campaign targeted to getting rid of the disease-carrying, garbage-eating rodents.
“I actually have next door to me a rat that seems kind of friendly, he comes out everyday and he can stand right next to me and is kind of chilling,” said Angela Cruz-Williams, a Morrell Park Community Association member and the only public commenter to testify. She called it a “shame” that the city’s rats are seemingly so bold and unafraid of humans.
While two new neighborhood solar trash compactors have helped with the rodent situation in her community, she encouraged the council to do more.
Officials with the Department of Public Works, the main agency responsible for most of the city’s rat control through its “Rat Rubout” program, said that they made 76,000 “touches,” or rat responses, but that the city’s sanitation issues keep the rodent population high. Districts 13, 10 and 1 had the highest number of calls for rat service.
One DPW agency official said residents need to do better with controlling their waste.
“If the rats have a food source, a water source, shelter, they're going to be around no amount of bait we use will mitigate that. If you look at the data on the different districts, the areas where we have a lot of dirty alleys, dirty streets, crime and grime, all of those things contribute to the rat population,” she said. “We have to, along with the residents, make those changes.”
Councilwoman Phylicia Porter inquired whether the city has looked at using rat contraceptives and was told that the city has looked at using ContraPest, a birth-control dispensed into salty, fatty pellets that are eaten as bait. DPW officials said that the permit they currently use likely does not allow for that, as it is only approved for certain poisons.
Councilmember James Torrence, District 7, noted that many rodent problems in his district are in part due to illegal dumping at vacant homes and lots. Sometimes, in areas where there are widespread 311 calls, officials from the Department of Housing and Community Development (which handles some rat issues, particularly when it comes to landlord licensing) aren’t able to do a full treatment because some property owners do not give permission or are unavailable.
“In some areas where we've had a large number of infestations, six neighbors say no, and then we can't do it for the block,” he said. That is an issue, said city officials, that would have to be taken up by the city’s law department.
The committee, headed by Councilwoman Danielle McCray seemed open to further steps in exploring both an opt-out campaign and rat contraception.
As for step one, McCray called for a citywide rat and trash educational awareness campaign.
“I'm looking forward to seeing a public awareness campaign and real interagency collaboration, because we're not going to solve this by just going to community meetings,” said McCray.
