Rats! How Chicago became the most vermin-infested town in the US

Name: Chicago.

Age: About 187 years old.

Appearance: Lots of classic American skyscrapers and greystone residential buildings.

Ah, the Windy City. The Ratty City, actually.

My kind of town, Chicago. That’s certainly what the rats think.

Who has given Chicago this unwanted accolade? An Atlanta-based pest control company called Orkin. It does an annual survey of the US’s rattiest cities, and Chicago has taken the palm this year. In fact, Chicago wins most years – this is the sixth year in a row that it has topped the poll.

That is remarkable. You would think it would be New York. It came third after Los Angeles, with Washington DC, San Francisco and Detroit occupying the next three places.

How does Orkin calculate levels of rattiness? It bases it on the number of callouts it gets to deal with rodents in every major city.

But that is completely unscientific. It might just be that Chicagoans are the US’s most rat-obsessed people. Well, rat obsession probably does equate to rat prevalence, but you raise a fair point and one that has not been lost on Chicago’s pest control department.

In what way? Stung by repeatedly winning the title of Rat Central, the city undertook a study of rat infestation in 2018. The findings accepted there was a problem in high-density neighbourhoods in the north and north-west of Chicago, and said it was mainly caused by inefficient disposal of rubbish. But it explicitly rejected the title of US rat capital.

Now there’s a surprise. It went further, claiming the fact that Chicago was top of the poll showed how well the city was doing at getting residents to report infestation and do something about it. This was a good news story for Chicago.

PR is a wonderful thing. “Boston has an incredible degree of rat problems, too,” said a Chicago-based pest control expert. “I know that New York does. I go out with night-vision glasses on, and I do rat counts and rat safaris, and I’ve done them in both Chicago and New York, and New York seems twice as ratty as Chicago.”

How are rats doing in the pandemic? I’m very glad you asked that, because they are doing surprisingly well. The absence of people from city centres has apparently made them more confident, and they have overcome the problem of many restaurants being closed – they rely on food waste – by foraging further afield. Climate change and increasing urbanisation are also helping rat populations to grow.

It is a great time to be a rat. What is the rat capital of the UK? A survey by the British Pest Control Association in 2016 said it was Bridgend, but this was also based on the number of callouts to councils by size of population rather than a scientific count. Neath came second, and South Wales took four places in the top 10.

What’s rat in Welsh? Llygoden fawr, which translates as big mouse.

Not to be confused with: The growing population of urban foxes.

Don’t say: “Rats!”

Do say: “Cats!”