Good Old Lower East Side

RATS on the LES

May 03, 2001

Its Rats! With all of the new construction going on, problems with rats have become horrendous. See the listing in this issue of Loisaida Voice for where you can file any complaints.

The best solutions to remedy problems with rats is to cut off their food supplies. Form a tenant association to work with your landlord and super to make sure that garbage cans have tightly fitted lids and that the front of the building clean. If you have rats that enter into your apartment, look for cracks or other openings in the walls, behind your refrigerator or under your sink. If you find rat holes there, stuff the holes with steel wool, broken glass or caulk and then seal with duct tape. Alert the super at once for proper repairs. (Cayenne pepper also works very well if sprinkled in the holes before stuffing them with the steel wool.) Take out your garbage every day! Clean your garbage pails with a good disinfectant soap. If you are away from home, keep a radio playing. The voices over the air and the music tends to keep rats from getting to comfortable. Rats are generally just as afraid of humans as people are of their nasty habits.