If you happen to live there this might not surprise you, but New York City has topped a ranking of the country’s most rat-infested cities.
The poll is from the extermination company Terminix, which of course is well-versed in vermin.
Coming in second was San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to round out the top five.
Officially, the Big Apple has been battling the blight: Officials hired the city’s first-ever rat czar, Kathleen Corradi, in 2023, at a $155,000 annual salary, possibly answering your internal question of “How much money would it take for me to…”
The city’s department of sanitation also claims that efforts like getting trash off the streets and having people put garbage in rat-proof containers has led to a drop in rat sightings in 12 of the last 13 months.
At least residents elsewhere in the state can take comfort that New York didn’t top the list of the most rat-infested states: That (dis)honor actually went to California, which, according to Yelp, had the most queries for extermination help.