Posted on 01/19/2006 5:07:04 PM PST by Rennes Templar
You might not be mindful of them when you cut through alleys to get home from work or school.
You might not be thinking about them when you order food in your favorite restaurant.
But rats could be frequenting the same restaurants and walkways you do.
There are an estimated 500,000 of these furry fiends scurrying around the city, according to a city spokesman.
Believe it or not, that's an improvement.
"A few years ago we had 1.5 million rats, and 20 years ago there were 6 or 7 million," said Matt Smith, spokesman for the Department of Streets and Sanitation. "We have done a lot to reduce the rat population, and the city has gotten very serious about this problem."
Extermination experts say numbers are definitely down, but they disagree with city officials about how many rats there are in Chicago.
-snip-
Exterminators and city sanitation officials agree on one thing: "If rats can't feed, they can't breed," Smith said. "If they find a place filled with garbage, dripping grease and loaded with places they can hide or burrow, you're going to be looking at an infestation."
"We feed them abundant sources of food, leave garbage cans open, bird feeders full and pet food dishes out. A rat thrives on a junked-up alley and an overgrown landscape where they can hide."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
a couple kids with .22s at the local dumps could put a good sized dent in the population yanno.
oh, whoops.. liberal city. no guns allowed.
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check out "The Rats".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.