Rats Love Bed-Stuy In The Summer, Study Finds

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Bed-Stuy is the favorite neighborhood of rats, and especially in the summer, a new study found.

Bed-Stuy is the neighborhood with the most rat complaints in all of in New York City, according to a RentHop study released Tuesday.

Bed-Stuy residents contacted 311 to complain about rats 1,265 times, more than in any other city neighborhood, in 2017, researchers found. That means about 20 percent of rat complaints in Brooklyn came from Bed-Stuy.

Harlem came in second with 865 complaints and the Upper West Side came in third with 731, but the study noted they have more rat reports per square mile than Bed-Stuy.

Brooklyn had the most rat complaints of all the borough with 7,253 calls, beating out Manhattan with a mere 4,507 unique rat complaints (which is not people complaining about rats with questionable mannerisms, but different rats in different places), the study found.

The city is not unaware of the ongoing rat attack happening in the neighborhood — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $33-million rat attack in 2017 where the problem is worst. In Brooklyn, that meant Bushwick and Bed-Stuy.

The money went toward a slew of rat-proof, solar powered trash compactors, more frequent garbage pickups, officials said.

The RentHop survey concluded with a warning that rats enjoy the summer, when the rat pups (or babies) are weaned and go off in search of ripe garbage food.

Photo courtesy of Anatoly Pareev/Shutterstock