I recently attended a meeting of DEBNA (Duke Ellington Blvd. Neighborhood Association) my neighborhood association. Folks who’ve been in the neighborhood for over a decade say they’ve never seen the rat problem this bad. It is pretty bad around here; though the dog loves having ample prey to hunt.The mantra of the meeting was: water, food and harborage. Rats need those three things, and will multiply to the maximum population that can be supported by the. So the only way to manage the population is not by poisoning and killing them (unless you kill them all, which you can’t, they will multiply rapidly). It seems the biggest problem in the area is poor garbage storage (i.e., “food”). Combined with sealing up buildings, tree pits and other points of access to harborage, getting trash into rat-proof containers is what needs to be done. DEBNA organizing around this issue. If you’re in the neighborhood and want to help, go to their web site and get involved.

The meeting was attended by our Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito, as well as Councilmember Bill “The Rat Man” Perkins, an exterminator, and Penny Ryan, Community Board 7 District Manager.

Other notes:

• The guy (Peter?) from the Columbus Amsterdam Business Improvement District mentioned that bed bugs are am emerging problem in the neighborhood, so if you spot a matress or upholstered furniture on the curb, leave it
• The Green Market on 106th at CPW might not begin until June, but the new Morningside Park farmer’s market begins on April 8th.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Local, manhattanvalley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.