Rats

[Pam RCN]

Great information from COO Josh Morse. Remember to report rats on Newtons webpage.

With temps warming up, rats in urban communities throughout the country are becoming more active.

We all know that keeping trash secured, preventing overgrowth in our yards, and compost systems tight, are easy ways to help control the rat population. What you may not know is that reporting any rat sightings to the City is extremely helpful in our efforts to control the rat population. You can report sightings by clicking on the following link: https://apps2.newtonma.gov/apps/rodent/indexy.php

Some people have asked why we don't just put bait stations on the berms between the sidewalks and the street. Some other communities do it, so why not Newton?

The answer is that it's not at all effective. Rats are very skittish. Nearly everything is a predator to them. They avoid being exposed as much as possible. When you see them in the open, they are hauling to get where they want to be. Sitting in an exposed area like a berm is a last resort for them. Other communities do this because it's something residents can see, and it makes them feel better, even if it has no impact. Also, why would a rat take a risk like that if it had a food source somewhere close to its burrows? They wouldn't.

I deploy a combination of Contrapest and Burrow RX depending on the situation. In both cases, I rely on residential rat reporting for the deployment of these methods. We deploy our resources geographically based on the information that residents provide. Here's the challenge:

Rats typically don't travel more than a few hundred feet at most from their burrow. In most cases they will establish their burrows within less than 5 feet of the food source. This can be a dumpster, unkept trash cans, fruit trees or bushes, bird feeders, or compost systems. None of these sources exist on public property.

This means that the city is trying to combat a problem that we can't get access to. If the rats don't leave private property and come hang out on public land for a spell, then our options are very limited. This is why communities push out so much info on prevention.

What I really love to find is a burrow system like the one shown in the picture. In this case, I use Burrow RX to gas the system. This eliminates the rat population immediately. In a matter of a few minutes, I can remove hundreds of rats from circulation.

I deploy Contrapest on public properties where there's rat activity on adjacent private properties. I focus on placing these systems between the reported rat activity, and the closest water source, as rats need to drink 10-15% of their body weight daily.
I could write for days on this subject, so if you have any questions or want any tips, please drop a comment below.

Again, if you see something, say something. I need your help in driving down the rat population in Newton.

Sent from my iPhone

[Ann]

Hi Community Members and Pam,

Another reason not to use rat poison is that poisoned rats are most likely to be caught by hawks, owls, eagles, foxes and other predators. And will kill them too. Numerous heart wrenching stories about the unintended consequences of using rat poisoning to kill a rat. When we had a rat problem we used the old fashion snap traps.

Ann
Dorfmanann@ Comcast.net

> On Apr 10, 2026, at 11:54 AM, Pam RCN <pamw...@rcn.com> wrote:
>
> Great information from COO Josh Morse. Remember to report rats on Newtons webpage.

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