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   From: nigel@oxford.edu   
      
   When New Yorkers see something scurrying, they say something and   
   that has brought rat complaints to the city's 311 hotline to a   
   recent high of more than 24,000 so far this year, officials said   
   on Thursday.   
      
   "The rats are taking over," New York City Comptroller Scott   
   Stringer told Reuters. "I'm a lifelong New Yorker and I've never   
   seen it this bad... I see them on my way home, they're standing   
   upright, they say, 'Good morning, Mr. Comptroller.'"   
      
   With more than two months of grumbling still left in 2015,   
   rodent-related grievances were already at 24,375 as of   
   Wednesday, said Mayor Bill de Blasio spokeswoman Natalie   
   Grybauskas. That's up from 20,545 in 2014 and 19,321 in 2013.   
      
   And that's just above-ground rats - complaints about vermin in   
   the subway are routed to the Metropolitan Transportation   
   Authority and not recorded by the 311 line, Grybauskas said.   
      
   A city Health Department rodent expert, Carolyn Bragdon, laid   
   the blame, in part, on a new 311 mobile phone app in use since   
   February 2014, making it easier to rat out the pests to the   
   city's hotline that has been operating since 2003.   
      
   "Whenever you launch a new vehicle for complaints, you tend to   
   see increases," Bragdon said. "Over 90 percent of the increase   
   in complaints was due to the app."   
      
   So far this year, rat complaints consisted of 17,356 calls,   
   2,347 online remarks and 4,672 mobile app entries, statistics   
   show. Last year there were 16,964 calls, 2,361 online remarks   
   and 1,220 mobile app entries.   
      
   "As if no one knew this before the app - it's just not true,"   
   Stringer said. "It's a lack of taking care of business by the   
   city's health department."   
      
   The city is spending $2.9 million to expand a pilot program to   
   eradicate "rat reservoirs," attacking them in the colonies they   
   set up in parks, subways and sewers, Bragdon said. Exterminators   
   set out bait, close burrows and work with the neighboring   
   community on best practices to avoid attracting them in the   
   future.   
      
   "What we know from the pilot is that we have the ability to   
   crash a rat population by 80 to 90 percent," Bragdon said.   
      
   The city has no official estimate on rat numbers, she said.   
      
   Last year, a Columbia University researcher estimated the   
   population at about 2 million, far fewer than traditional   
   estimates of 8 million, or one rat for every human in the most   
   populous U.S. city.   
      
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/22/us-new-york-rats-   
   idUSKCN0SG2NC20151022   
         
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)