Mayor declares war on rats at NYCHA complexes

<p>Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city will take its fight against rats to 10 of the most infested NYCHA complexes around the Big Apple.</p>

News 12 Staff

Apr 17, 2018, 8:42 PM

Updated 2,199 days ago

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Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city will take its fight against rats to 10 of the most infested NYCHA complexes around the Big Apple.
Rat infestations are out of control around the city, residents say.
"They're coming out like people," says Jackie Walden, a tenant of NYCHA's Bushwick Houses. "They're big like dogs."
Evelyn Colon, another tenant, says her grandchildren don't want to visit her due to the vermin.
Each complex will get a full-time exterminator, new trash bins and more frequent trash removal. The city also has plans to install more concrete on the ground, as opposed to dirt, where rats thrive.
One method the exterminator will use to kill them off involves dropping dry ice down their burrows to suffocate them with carbon dioxide.
"If you can't go out and have your kids on the playground because there are rats, something is fundamentally wrong," de Blasio says. "That is no way for people to live."
Along with the Bushwick Houses, other complexes for the new program include the Marcy, Hylan, Webster, Butler, Morris and Morrisania houses.


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