City officials have declared war on rats in their latest effort to attack a population that experts estimate could be double that of the Big Apple’s 8.4 million people.
Starting next month, the city’s 45 inspectors will be bolstered by nine new employees of a pilot program to tackle the vermin in neighborhoods where rats have resisted repeated efforts to eradicate them — such as Washington Heights, West Harlem, Chinatown, the Lower East Side and the South Bronx.
In an effort to keep them from spreading, inspectors will target rat havens like parks, sewers, dumping areas and subways.
Financed with $611,000 in the current city budget, inspectors will work with neighborhood associations, community boards, elected officials and building owners to plug up holes and put poison in rodent tunnels.