For the tenth consecutive year, Orkin dubbed Chicago the “rattiest” city in America in 2024.
Now, there is a new approach: rat birth control.
The Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a pilot program to try to control the neighborhoods’ rat population.
Starting April 1st, rat birth control will be installed in bait boxes in alleys behind several major commercial corridors in Wicker Park and Bucktown.
The birth control is an alternative to rat poison, which reportedly poses risks to pets and the environment.
Chicago isn’t the first major city to try this method. New York City was ranked third rattiest by Orkin.
The company WISDOM Good Works is expected to partner with New York City in their attempt to manage and maintain the distribution of rat birth control.
“It’s formulated to target the reproductive system of an animal the size of a rat. Anything that eats that rat will no longer be eating a poisoned meal,” the director of operations at WISDOM Good Works, Alaina Gonzalez-White, previously told ABC News.
PETA supports the initiative.
