New York City Using Rat Birth-Control for Controlling Rodent Population
- 11 years ago
Rat birth control could be the new weapon in control;omg New York's rat population.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City is trying to implement a new way to stop the infestation of rats in the city’s subway tunnels.
After blocking small pathways that allow access to trash storage rooms and getting rid of garbage cans on the platforms of subway stations, now they are trying to use bait that will make the rats infertile.
The challenge is making bait that is more appealing to the rats than their other sources of food like discarded fast food and other tasty trash that the rats have to choose from.
With a grant of over a million dollars from the National Institutes of Health to implement the use of the bait, called ContraPest, researchers are experimenting to find out what kind of food will be most effective to use as bait for rats in the New York City subway.
An abstract of the plan from SenesTech, the company that makes the product in Arizona said: “While there is no magic bullet to reducing rat pest populations, we believe that our technology can be used as an adjunct to current rodent pest management practices to have a sustainable significant impact on the reduction of the urban brown rat population.”
The Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City is trying to implement a new way to stop the infestation of rats in the city’s subway tunnels.
After blocking small pathways that allow access to trash storage rooms and getting rid of garbage cans on the platforms of subway stations, now they are trying to use bait that will make the rats infertile.
The challenge is making bait that is more appealing to the rats than their other sources of food like discarded fast food and other tasty trash that the rats have to choose from.
With a grant of over a million dollars from the National Institutes of Health to implement the use of the bait, called ContraPest, researchers are experimenting to find out what kind of food will be most effective to use as bait for rats in the New York City subway.
An abstract of the plan from SenesTech, the company that makes the product in Arizona said: “While there is no magic bullet to reducing rat pest populations, we believe that our technology can be used as an adjunct to current rodent pest management practices to have a sustainable significant impact on the reduction of the urban brown rat population.”