90 dead rats turn up in NYC to help showcase the next frontier in rodent traps

By Steven Melendez

Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams invited reporters to a Thursday press conference with an unusual promise: a display of 90 dead rats.

The rodent carcasses were on hand to exhibit the success of a pilot program with New York company Rat Trap Inc., deploying a new kind of, well, rat trap that Adams says is superior to methods currently used in the city. The new devices, called Ekomille traps, entice rats, mice, and other vermin with food bait in a top chamber, then it deposits them into a bottom chamber filled with an alcohol solution that’s said to incapacitate and kill them in seconds.

The solution also preserves the rats, keeping odors from escaping the traps, while a turnstile-like counter keeps track of how many rodent carcasses are in the devices. The lack of stink not only keeps nearby humans from being disgusted by the traps but also keeps other rats from being scared away from the traps by the scent of the decomposing corpses.

Rats can spread disease, get into food supplies, and even bite humans, which is why they are a serious issue in New York City. Brooklyn reportedly generates the most rat complaints of the city’s five boroughs, and the city has taken other steps in rat-infested areas to curb the rodents, like installing difficult-to-penetrate, solar-powered trash compactor cans, stepping up garbage collection, and warning people not to feed pigeons.

 
 
 

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