Rats contaminate foods and spread pathogens. Thus, changes in rat populations have consequences for society, especially in densely-populated cities. Following widespread social distancing and lockdown measures to curtail SARS-CoV-2, worldwide media outlets reported increased sightings of rats. To document possible changes in rat populations, we: (i) examined public service requests in the 6 years before, and during, ‘lockdown’ in New York City; (ii) used spatial analyses to identify calls in proximity to food service establishments (FSE); and (iii) surveyed pest-management companies. Over 6 years prior to the pandemic, we found a consistent moderate spatial association (r = 0.35) between FSE and rat-related calls. During the early stages of the pandemic, the association between rat reports and food services did not decrease as would be expected by restaurant closures, but instead modestly increased (r = 0.45). There was a 29.5% decrease in rat reports, overall. However, hotspot analysis showed that new reports were highly localized, yet absent in several industrial areas they were previously observed in, potentially masking a higher proportion of calls in neighborhoods near closed restaurants. Additionally, 37% of pest management companies surveyed reported that, unlike previous years, 50–100% of requests were from new clients and addresses. The finding that hotspots remained nearby dense clusters of restaurants does not support the common narrative that rats moved long distances. Rather, our results are consistent with rats finding nearby alternative food resources. Tracking these dynamics as the COVID-19 pandemic abates will be an important step to identifying how rats respond to society returning to normal activity patterns.
Because rats are commensal organisms that depend on human activities for food, shifts in human behavior will have pronounced effects on local rat populations. In the spring of 2020, social distancing measures were implemented globally to curtail the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This presented a unique opportunity to obtain information regarding the immediate effects of shifts in human behavior on rat populations in a variety of countries. In response to increased sightings of rats in the USA that were reported in American media, we analyzed the changes in the number of public service calls in Tokyo, Japan. We found that the number of calls increased after the implementation of social distancing measures, suggesting that rat sightings had also increased in Tokyo. We then surveyed the changes in the business activities of pest management professionals in the USA, Canada, and Tokyo. We found that the activities were increased in 50 to 60% of the respondents from the USA and Canada. In contrast, 60 to 70% of the respondents from Tokyo answered that their activities were not changed. These results implied that, following the implementation of social distancing measures, rat infestations increased in North America, but not in Tokyo. The survey also suggested that roof rats were considered to be the predominant rodent species in Tokyo. This may account for the limited infestations in Tokyo because roof rats are more sedentary than brown rats. Taken together, our findings suggest that social distancing measures differentially affected rat populations in North America and Tokyo. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10340-021-01405-z.
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