Rats

Report: Boston saw a decrease in rat complaints this year in these neighborhoods

The report looked at data collected by city governments in Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C., and Boston.

Boston saw a 10 percent decrease in the number of rodent activity reports compared with 2020. Illustration by Lesley Becker/Globe Staff; Adobe

By Kelly Garrity -- Boston.com correspondent

November 18, 2021

2 minutes to read

Boston may soon be able to shed its not-so-enviable title as one of the rattiest metros in the United States.

That’s bad news for pest control companies’ bottom line, but good news for residents: Rodent sightings are down 10 percent this year according to a report the apartment listing site RentHop released Monday. The report looked at data collected by city governments in Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. Boston was the only city to see a decrease, and New York experienced the biggest jump — a 29 percent increase from 2020.

According to the report, Boston’s non-emergency call number (311) received 3,225 rodent activity reports as of Nov. 10, compared with 3,603 in 2020. This year’s figure translates to 4.71 complaints per 1,000 residents, according to the analysis.

A number of factors may have contributed to the overall decrease, said Shane Lee, a data scientist at RentHop.

The city’s Environmental Sanitation Division, a subsection of the city’s Inspectional Services Department, is specially tasked with rodent inspections and control. The city ramped up its pest control services last year after an explosion of reported rodent sightings in 2020.

The pandemic and remote work, however, may have also played roles in the decrease, Lee said. “In Boston, maybe it’s just that not as many people have to come back to the city, or maybe they’re taking more trips because now that they can work anywhere they want.”

Despite the overall dip, some neighborhoods have still seen a substantial number of rodent sightings:

Downtown – 451 complaints
South End – 298 complaints
Roxbury – 228 complaints
South Boston – 207 complaints

But the number of complaints jumped substantially in these neighborhoods:

Bay Village – 11 complaints in 2020, 22 in 2021 (+100%)
Mission Hill – 33 complaints in 2020, 56 in 2021 (+69.7%)
South Boston – 149 complaints in 2020, 207 in 2021 (+38.9%)
South End – 221 complaints in 2020, 298 in 2021 (+34.8%)
Roxbury – 179 complaints in 2020, 228 in 2021 (+27.4%)

And dropped significantly in these neighborhoods:

Allston – 286 complaints in 2020, 124 in 2021 (-56.6%)
South Boston Waterfront – 9 complaints in 2020, 4 in 2021 (-55.6%)
Beacon Hill – 66 complaints in 2020, 43 in 2021 (-34.8%)
Fenway – 54 complaints in 2020, 36 in 2021 (-33.3%)
West End – 3 complaints in 2021, 2 in 2021 (-33.3%)

In past years, Lee said, they’ve seen a correlation between rents and rodent sightings, with more expensive neighborhoods reporting fewer sightings. This year, however, that was not the case, she said.

“It affects everybody,” she said. “It’s not just one specific neighborhood or socioeconomic class.”

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