Like pizza, yellow taxi cabs, and Broadway, rats go hand in hand with New York City. And the waterfront location and amount of trash make Transmitter Park a favorite hang-out spot for the furry foes. A Reddit user recently noticed several rat burrows in the park, describing it as a “rat lair of doom.”
Greenpointers reached out to the city’s Parks Department to see what was to be done.
“We’re committed to keeping our public greenspaces free of rodents so New Yorkers and visitors can focus on enjoying everything our parks have to offer,” a spokesperson told us. “Between installing a new rat-resistant trash enclosure and regular visits to manage the rodent population at WNYC Transmitter Park, we’re working hard to limit rodents’ access to food and keep them out of the park.”
Parks also shared that they planned to treat the area with dry ice this week. When we went by this afternoon, we also saw a sign that the area had been treated with rat poison.
Let this be a good reminder to make sure you take your trash with you, so the pile up doesn’t further attract more critters (the park’s new pizza box-shaped trash receptacle should help mitigate the amount of refuse).
Between the rats and the off-leash dogs, here’s hoping the lawn at Transmitter Park can one day know peace.
Rat poison is not only deadly for rats but also for the creatures that hunt and eat rats, like hawks and owls. How come this piece of common knowledge has not reached our city government? https://www.ctaudubon.org/2023/02/rat-and-mouse-poisons-also-kill-hawks-its-time-to-ban-2nd-generation-rodenticides/