Chicago Ranked ‘Rattiest City’ for 10th Year

Orkin, an exterminator service, announced on Oct. 21 Chicago is the rattiest city in the U.S. for the tenth year in a row, according to its research.

The information is based on data collected from Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024 by “tracking new residential rodent treatments,” according to the company’s website.

“Chicago’s abundance of alleys provides rodents with hidden havens, offering plenty of space to hide while feasting on trash,” Orkin’s website said. “Rodents also love to burrow, finding shelter beneath subway tracks or around underground pipes. In these hidden spots, the rodent population can grow if left unchecked.”

First-year political science and history major Jane Wirth said she was surprised to learn Chicago beat New York for the title, and she said she’s seen rats on campus and throughout Chicago.

“They’re gross to look at, and they eat trash and carry diseases,” Wirth said.

Diseases spread by rats include Leptospirosis and Rat-Bite Fever, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mary Dinsmore, a lecturer in the School of Environmental Science, said she isn’t worried about the rat population.

“This is an interesting thing,” Dinsmore said. “It’s a title, or maybe an award I guess, that we are gifted upon us every year. It’s something that has perplexed, I think, a lot of people, because I don’t think they would consider us the rattiest city–or at least that’s the perception.”

Rats are able to go unnoticed by nature of Chicago’s alleyways, which often store trash out of sight, according to Dinsmore. She also said she thinks it could be because Chicago has more room.

“The Norwegian rat is the rat species that we have here, and that rat behaves where it can dig in the soil quite a bit, and it makes burroughs kind of,” Dinsmore said. “We have more green space here in Chicago, so I think that might lend itself to the ecology of the rat a lot more and just because we have more space.”

Senior marketing major Amara Bullard said she sees rats, dead and alive, often when she walks through alleyways. She said the two dead rats she saw were 10-12 inches long.

“One of my biggest fears with rats, walking the alleys, is definitely that one will run across my foot,” Bullard said. “I don’t want them to touch me, so I stop in my tracks, I just wait for it to pass, wait for it to figure where it’s going and then continue.”

The city of Chicago’s website urges people who spot rat problems to call 311 or submit a report online.

“Rat infestations are a perennial health and quality-of-life concern in Chicago,” according to the City of Chicago’s Audit and Program Review Section Annual Plan of 2023.

The Lincoln Park Zoo, as part of their Chicago Rat Project, reported rats thrive more in alleys which have uncontained trash.

Dinsmore said she isn’t worried about the Orkin report.

“It’s just a really interesting catchline so I think it gets a lot of fire, but I’m not sure it’s the most scientifically accurate demarcation,” Dinsmore said.

The city of Chicago strives to control the rat population through the poison rodenticide according to their website. But poison can negatively affect animals in the area due to biomagnification and is an inhumane way to kill rats, according to Dinsmore.

Currently, the 49th Ward is undergoing a rat poison misuse investigation which has resulted in wildlife deaths and harm to pets, The Phoenix reported.

Dinsmore and other environmentalists said the best way to control the rat population is through rat traps rather than poison — which makes the rat bleed internally.

“One of the best ways, but we don’t like it, is rat snap traps,” Dinsmore said. “It’s much more humane to use a rat trap, but of course, it’s unappealing to a lot of people which is why we don’t use them.”

Rats are highly successful, making up 40% of all mammals, according to Dinsmore. They are highly adaptable to different environments and food sources.

“That variability in their dentition and their ability to continuously grow their incisors means that they can eat a variety of foods,” Dinsmore said. “That’s what we call behavioral plasticity, their ability to withstand a variety of environments, they’re very good at that. So, that is why we see them succeeding in environments that most other organisms might not succeed within.”

The city of Chicago has a community created Rodent Map made from rodent complaints.

Rats live wherever they can find a safe space and come out at night when there’s less activity, according to Dinsmore. Rats, in their search for shelter, come into homes of people, especially as the weather gets colder.

Dinsmore said students one way people can keep the rat population in check is by protecting foxes.

“The more that we get rid of our greenspaces and villainize anything that is a carnivore, they’re going to be exterminated from these regions which means that rat populations naturally are going to increase even further than they already have,” Dinsmore said. “The more that we can let organisms be and include those in the ecosystem that we built, the more that we will have natural checks and balances between these populations.”

Students can do their part by not engaging with rodents and forcing them to forage for food instead of feeding them directly, according to Dinsmore.

“Let them be — please don’t leave food scraps around, that’s going to draw the organisms in, it’s a cheap way,” Dinsmore said. “That’s going to make them even more used to being around humans, so ensuring that we aren’t leaving food around, just using the standard composting/recycling/garbage bins to put our waste in means that we’re not going to have as much rodent action everywhere.”