Last year, Washington was ranked the “rattiest” city in the country—and, it seems, city government has taken that personally. Early this year, mayoral candidate and current DC Council member Janeese Lewis George introduced the Rodent Accountability and Transparency (RAT) Amendment Act, which would create a public, online dashboard tracking the city’s ongoing War on Rats and also allow the Department of Health to recover costs from property owners and managers when it has to address unresolved rodent infestations. More recently, a number of council members sponsored a bill that would gradually replace DC’s open-top public trash cans with ones that are “rodent-resistant.” Now comes arguably DC’s boldest move yet: a new rat control pilot program that Mayor Muriel Bowser described on X as a “blitz.” “This spring, we’re combining baiting, tracking powder, an innovative fertility suppressant to target the rodent population,” she wrote. “Let’s work together to keep the population down by securing trash keeping alleys clear.” In 2017, Bowser’s “Back to Basics” anti-rat campaign focused on trash and garbage storage. This time around, DC Health says, the city will use a three-pronged approach: Anti-coagulant bait will be placed in and around rat burrows, serving up a lethal dose of poison with just one ingestion. Tracking powder will be spread on the inside of the burrows—the powder clings to fur, poisoning rats through grooming and other exposures. Rats will be given liquid birth control to suppress their fertility. According to DC Health, the $130,000 program will begin in late April or early May with a three-week, initial phase in the high-density rat areas of Adams Morgan. During the first week, a team of four inspectors and one supervisor will apply all three control methods, and return every other day to monitor their effectiveness. During the second week, the team will conduct abatement for two days, dropping to one day in week three. After that, DC Health plans to expand the three-week blitz cycles to Barracks Row and Chinatown, and then work with partners including Business Improvement Districts, and Advisory Neighborhood Commissions to cover other areas of the city. The post Everything You Need to Know About Mayor Bowser’s DC Rat “Blitz” first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less