Introducing skunks to Eastie? Or better yet, maybe owls? Or, perhaps, a feral cat house in Back Bay?
The war against rats is on in Boston, as some creative, if off-the-wall, solutions were bandied about during a City Council hearing Thursday where officials wrestled with a problem as old as human civilization.
The four-legged survival artists can be a resilient foe. They are adept at climbing and can chew and claw through a host of materials, and can subsist on garbage. Most troubling, they can carry with them a host of public health problems.
Vermin and the interconnected problems of trash and litter are realities of American urban living. Boston is no different.
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For sure, it’s not the sexiest problem facing the city. But during the City Council hearing, multiple city councilors made clear it is the sort of meat-and-potatoes issue that has real impacts on Boston’s quality-of-life. After all, who likes rats in their backyard, basement, or garden?
“If you don’t solve pest control and clean streets, people move out of the city,” said council President Ed Flynn during the hearing.
“We need to do more,” he said.
City officials do not have an estimate for the size of Boston’s rat population, but typing “rodents” into the Boston 311 database, a system that documents non-emergency requests for service, yielded more than 7,000 complaints, the vast majority of which are closed. (Only 334 are still open.) “Rats” yielded even more results in the system — 31,000-plus 311 reports, about 1,600 of which are still open.
Recent complaints came from across the city.
On Pomeroy Street near the Allston-Brighton line, a resident lamented two-week old litter there that was attracting rodents, as evidenced by rat droppings in the area. On Beacon Street, a dead animal in a garden was attracting other animals who were eating it. Rodents were reported running around near Blackstone Elementary School in the South End.
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Other neighborhoods, too, recently reported rat sightings: Roslindale, East Boston, South Boston, and, of course, in Allston, which has been saddled with the nickname “Rat City,” because of its pest population.
“It’s in every neighborhood, even if there is not construction going on,” said Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy during the City Council hearing.
One of the underlying problems of the local rat population, which city councilors says is burgeoning, is trash. During the hearing, there was an array of suggestions of how to change the way the city handles trash pickup that could cut down on rodents.
Councilor Kenzie Bok pointed out that city guidance advises residents to put trash on the curb between 5 p.m. the day before collection and 6 a.m. on the day of pickup. That results in a lot of trash sitting out overnight, which means more time for it to attract rats. Pushing back the the morning deadline could result in more people putting it out then, shortly before pickup.
Additionally in some of Boston’s downtown neighborhoods, people use trash bags more often than lidded containers, because of a lack of dedicated space for storing trash bins and placing them out. That leads to streets regularly littered with loose trash, providing good dining opportunities for rats, according to Bok.
“It’s a critical public health issue,” she said of the trash and rodent problems.
City officials told councilors at the hearing that rats are tough critters, who can survive on birdseed and even dog waste.
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“If there is food, they will find a way,” said John Ulrich, inspectional services’ assistant commissioner for environmental services.
Ulrich said the city used 500 pounds of dry ice during the past three weeks to kill rats in their burrows. The city also uses a machine that pumps carbon monoxide into the burrows to exterminate them.
Other ideas batted around during the Thursday session included having structures that suspend trash bins in the air for pick-up, an increase in the expense of fines for those who violate trash rules, and beefing up enforcement of the rules.
More proposals included waivers for city extermination of rats on private property, an automated text system for precise trash pickup times, and trash containers with smart locks.
One Back Bay resident suggested that a place to house feral cats could potentially help cut down the rat population. Another resident suggested feeding the rats birth control to stop them from reproducing.
City Councilor Gabriela Coletta broached fighting fire with fire, or, in this case, vermin with vermin. She said she heard a rumor that skunks, which prey on rats, were introduced to East Boston years ago to cut down on the rat population there.
Ulrich, the inspectional services official, said he, too, had heard the skunk rumor in Eastie, referring to it as an “urban legend” and said neighborhood residents have asked him “when are you bringing back the skunks?”
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“I don’t know who released the skunks,” he said to laughter.
Skunks would pose separate challenges, said Ulrich, least of which is local sanitary code calls for the animals to be removed from private property if they are found there.
Coletta said other communities used owls to curb their rat problems.
“I’ve heard that owls at some point . . . they eat as many as 12 rats a day,” she said. “It’s better than maybe a skunk.”
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.