Dear garden members,
Thank you all so much for an incredibly productive workday yesterday! We made such great progress. Thank you thank you!
We wanted to give you an update on the rat abatement project. On Friday, we had a visit from a senior case manager at the Department of Health (DOH). We gave her a tour and got lots of advice from her. Here are some things we learned:
1. There are rat holes in the back east and south sides of the east garden. The rats that are running up through the rock bed and behind the port-a-potty are running from there. We got instructions about what the exterminators need to do: Harass one week (collapsing the holes), bait the next (stick bait pellets into the holes) and keep doing that until holes don’t come back. There should also be bait stations every 15 ft along the rat paths. Bethany will be following up and monitoring what the exterminators do to make sure this happens.
2. DOH has pebbles they are going to give us. After we get rid of the burrows (using techniques mentioned above), we can mesh the perimeter and put pebbles in the trouble/perimeter areas.
3. Flies are a sign of a rat burrow.
4. DOH approved of the plan to clear out under the gazebo so that the exterminators can see what is going on there and help get rid of that colony (using the technique described above). That work is underway thanks to several fearless and heroic gardeners.
4. DOH said long term they will try to get us money to help us pick up the gazebo and put a slab down, plus scrape the earth off around the perimeter of the garden and put in protective mesh as well as new fencing. She is going to make sure we are on the list. Short term she definitely says we need to clean the gazebo out. And we need to clean up the boards to get rid of the rat smell.
5. The back east corner of the west garden (where the weed area) is has holes and evidence of rats. She said that all the sticks and hay on the ground are being used as “harborage.” That needs to be cleared and cleaned as much as possible so that the exterminators can do their thing.
6. DOH doesn’t think rats are living under the cistern, but they are using it to hide and for passage. Meshing around the cistern would be good.
7. When we rebuild beds, DOH agreed we need to put mesh in the ones that are afflicted and agreed it was a good idea to get the boards into the ground pretty far down so it’s not easy for the rats to dig in and out. Craig and Melissa’s is like that and it has helped.
8. DOH is going to host a Rat Academy for us at the garden. Stay tuned!
In addition, the City has a plan to fix sidewalk holes and we are hopefully going to be on the list for our rat-infested sidewalk hole. We will follow up with Greenthumb to make sure that happens. It will likely happen sometime next year.
The City’s extermination contract is now over as the fiscal year ended at the end of June. We are following up with them and hoping that the contract will be restarted again.
We are continuing to follow up with Mark Levine’s office for help with 12 West 104th st. The building was recently sold, so we have provided Greenthumb, DOH, and Mark Levine with the new contact information. Please continue to submit 311 complaints as much as you all can.
Here is a helpful post by the city’s “rat czar.” It is nice to read about how other gardens are dealing with similar problems and this article has helpful tips!
https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/managing_rats_in_city_gardens
Would anyone who isn’t on the committee like to join the rat committee? We have non-gross jobs to hand out! Please let Bethany (bdavisnollATgmail.com) know.
Thanks again for all your work everyone.
All best,
Steering Committee