April 14, 2025 • 36 mins
It’s Springtime in New England and with that comes warmer weather, floral blossoms, and…rats? While rats do not hibernate during Winter months, they do become more active during the Spring months. As temperatures rise, they leave behind the sheltered spots they occupied during the colder months, seeking out new environments that offer better resources. Within the last year Boston launched a new rodent action plan to combat the growing rodent population in the city. How has that plan been going and are you doing anything to ward off rodents in your neighborhood?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's night side with Dan Ray I WBSY cost In Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Fifteen to one, a good old fashioned pictures duel at
George Stein browner Field. That's what really hurts. They're not
playing at the Trop because the trop lost its roof
in the big hurricane. Which one I forget. I think
it was Milton, one of them down there last fall.
Whoa fifteen to one? Well, the good news is they'll
(00:30):
save their their run scoring for tomorrow night maybe, or
tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon. Good welcome back, everybody. That's a
Monday night. As a friend of mine calls it, moan day,
the Red Sox fans will be moaning tonight. That is
for sure, ugly ugly after a pretty good game yesterday.
I enjoyed watching Garrett Crochet. I was in a gym
(00:51):
yesterday afternoon watching that and he was dealing. He was dealing.
I thought he was going to get the no no,
but it didn't work out that way. Okay, we are
going to talk about a couple of things tonight coming
up at ten o'clock. My intention is to talk about
three theoretically unrelated but I think related events. I'm going
(01:12):
to talk about the bombing, the fire bombing of the
Pennsylvania Governor's mansion, that is where Governor Shapiro, the governor
of Pennsylvania lives. They actually have a governor's mansion, so
it was the state property of the property of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I might because they, like Us and
Virginia Kentucky are the only four states of Comma Wealths.
(01:34):
So some nutjob nutjob decided that he wanted to burn
down and probably was an anti Semitic action. It happened
on the first night of Passover. And by the way,
this is a very holy week, both for Jewish friends
and Christian friends. This is East Week for the Christian community,
(01:57):
which will culminate with Easter next Sunday morning. And this
of course is the This now is the third night
of Passover. So for my Jewish listeners who may be
listening and some are not, some are celebrating the meals
of Passover with family and friends, and we understand that.
(02:19):
But please, if you have friends who are Jewish during
this week, wish them a happy season or happy Passover,
and obviously the same towards Christian friends. As we approach
Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, and then Easter Sunday,
So do you have that incident. And by the way,
(02:40):
I saw a picture of this knucklehead and if he
didn't look like he had about ten screws loose. There
was some late video tonight that I saw. I saw
he's already been arraigned in Pennsylvania. So then you have
this seventeen year old we'll get into it later out
in Wisconsin who kills his parents. See, his mom was
(03:00):
only thirty five. Thirty five year old woman is his mother,
and he kills her and his stepdad fifty one. And
I guess he hangs in the house for a couple
of weeks finding as much money or whatever else he
can find. Unbelievable, what's going on in this world? And
(03:23):
it was all his idea of a plot to assassinate
President Trump. And then that against the backdrop of all
of the violence against Tesla owners, Tesla dealerships. What's wrong
with us? What's wrong with us as a country that
we can have disagreements politically and we have to resort
(03:45):
to this sort of violence. So we'll get to that
at ten o'clock. I want to talk about a more
mundane issue, and that is rats. No, I'm not talking
about people who snitch or anything like that. I'm talking
about rodents four legged kind. And I want to focus
on Boston because a year ago Boston came up with
(04:06):
what they called wrap Boston Rodent Action Plan. I wonder
how much the city paid to come up to come
up with that acronym, the Boston Rodent Action Plan, and
this was You go to the website if you want.
But with the first day that even came close to
(04:28):
being a spring day today, it was great. It looked
as if some of the trees were at least, you know,
extending the possibility that they might bloom some of the trees.
You know as well as I do, that once spring arrives,
the rats are going to be out in force. Now
(04:48):
they have been out in force all winter. You just
didn't see them because it was getting dark at five
o'clock at night for you know, several months during the winter,
and they do that best work when it's dark. Well,
I would love to know how is Boston doing with
(05:09):
controlling our rat population. People have told me, hey, you're
a city that lives on the harbor. You're a city
that has wharfs, and therefore you'll never get rid of
your rat population. But I got to tell you that
is one animal that does freak me out. If I
(05:32):
had a choice between seeing a bear or a rat
in my backyard, I'd prefer to see the bear, particularly
if it was a small bear. But rats as well
as snakes, But we don't have to worry about snakes
up here. If you live in Florida, you can talk
about snakes. I'd like to hear from you. Do you
(05:53):
feel that your neighborhood in Boston has been cleaned up?
They have this again, this BRAP Boston Rodent Action Plan.
You get it, b r A P is in Plan
brap uh. It's a new initiative to combat the rodent
population of the city of Boston. Well, at least it's
(06:15):
there's an acknowledgment of that. We tried to reach the
renowned urban rodentologist, doctor Bobby Corrigan today. He authored the
report last summer. I don't know that I would want
to be a renowned urban rodent knowlogist, rodent ologist, but
again we would have loved to have had him on.
We had him on before. So in the in the
(06:37):
plan that they have the city agencies, the following city
agency will combine resources and coordinate with other levels of government,
property owners, and the general public. That's you to help
reduce rodent infestation throughout the city. What are the groups?
Inspectional Services, the Boston Housing Authority, Boston Water and Sewer,
(06:58):
Boston Public Schools are Operation's Cabinet, whatever that is, Boston
Public Health Commission, the Department of Public Works, Boston three
to one one, Boston Parks and Recreation. Come on over,
the rat Office of Neighborhood Services, and the Department of
Innovation and Technology. How about that? Huh? The Boston Rodent Report.
(07:20):
You can read the entire report at this website, which
is Boston dot gov slash Department slash Inspectional hyphen Services
Boston slash Boston hyphen rodent. I just put in Boston
rat problem and it'll bring it here. The report highlights
(07:40):
various causes and effects related to road and infestation. I
don't need a report to know what's causing the road
and infestation. People in Boston are people who do not
keep their garbage in containers that are that are imperviable,
unpermeable by rats. People who leave excuse me, who leave
(08:04):
pizza boxes on the street who throw, you know, pizza
crusts as they're walking down Newberry Street. Poor yeah, poor
trash mitigation. But that means is we're slobs A lot
of people in Boston or slobs storage and removal Boston
Ever walked down any of the alleyways between commav and
Newbury Street. Huh, Try that someday if you want to
(08:27):
lose your lunch. Boston, being one of the oldest cities
in the Northeast, has infrastructure that greatly influences the rodent population.
The densely populated neighborhoods with intertwining alleyways and old sewer systems,
along with century old cobble or brick streets and sidewalks,
provide an environment for rodents to thrive. I have no
(08:48):
idea what brick streets, cobble or brick streets and sidewalks do,
but that's okay. Doctor Korn' would report emphasizes how human
behavior significantly contributes to the rodent population, which he calls
a modern day city conundrum. Oh, I like that word conundrum.
Storing trash and plastic bags is a norm in some
areas of the city. The brats just gnaw through those
(09:11):
babies which is a key factor in the rodent population.
Changing this behavior is critical to reducing the rodent population,
and it needs to be done consistently throughout the city.
That is so accurate, so correct. I'm looking at some
pictures here of overflowing dumpsters, dumpsters that don't have any
(09:31):
top on them. All the rat does is climbs up
into the dumpster and it's lunchtime. It's a buffet. Be informed.
The City of Boston diligently educates property owners and residents
regarding the proper method to store trash. The key to
quality urban rodent control is eliminating and limiting access to food, water,
and shelter, all of which rodents need to thrive. Okay,
(09:55):
enough of the experts. I want to hear from you.
How do you think Boston that he's doing. Give the
city well, again, this is non intended as a criticism
of the mayor. Give the city rating number one, but
also give your fellow residents a rating because my suspicion
is my suspicion is that most people in Boston think
(10:16):
other people are kind of swaps. I get around Boston
enough to know that rats are going to be a
problem this summer. This spring, and you're going to start
to see him soon, depending upon where you where you're
going to walk. Will you see them in the middle
of the Boston common I don't know. My question is
(10:36):
where have you seen them? Six one seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three one ten thirty.
Give us a call. I think if we talk about it,
maybe it will wake some people up and they will
put their trash inside of plastic or or steel containers dumpsters,
(10:57):
and they will make sure that they are not overflowing
and that the dumpster will be walked so the rats
can't get in. Talking about rats in Boston, and we're
talking about the four legged fuck God. We're not talking
about politicians, no no, no, no jokes about politicians indicted
or otherwise. We're talking about rodents. And can Boston ever ever?
(11:20):
They can't get rid of them, but can we control
the rodent population in Boston? I'll tell you if you
see one, you never forget them. They are not cute
little critters. They are not whatsoever. Six one seven, two thirty,
six one seven, nine, three one ten thirty. And those
of you in suburbia who don't see rats, you're lucky
(11:43):
coming to Boston if you want to see some rats
back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So here's my question. I want to broaden this question
a little bit. Obviously, no one seems to be particularly
interested about the rat population in Boston. I don't live
in Boston, but I committed Boston occasionally, and it's a
concern that I have because rats do carry disease, so
it's more than just an ugly appearance in an alleyway.
(12:18):
The deaths recently of Gene Hackman and his wife I
think have been attributed to the fact that somehow rats,
you know, I don't think get too descriptive here, but
somehow rats have gotten into their house and they carry diseases.
They carry diseases, and we got to get rid of them.
And it just seems to me that I'm not here
(12:40):
again to blame may Or Wu in this one. I
can blame her for a lot of things, but not
on this because this problem predated her, and I suspect
it's probably unless some real action is taken, will postate her.
You got to have dumpsters which close completely. You can't
have dumpsters which get thrown around and tossed around. Rats
(13:02):
can kind of sneak in, climb up, sneak in, not
a problem. And as long as the food stuff is
exposed and in those dumpsters with some form of either
a paper bag or a plastic bag, the rats are
going to get through them. So I'd love to hear
from some of you feel free. You don't have to
(13:25):
be a Boston resident, although I'd love to hear Boston residents.
Is this is it on a concern that you have
or is it something that you don't talk about because
you don't want people to realize that that Boston has
a huge rat population. And again, if you're in the
restaurant areas in Boston and you know you won't see them,
(13:46):
they are pretty cagy, but they will. They will come
out and they can scurry across the street in front
of you very easily. And it makes look, it makes
a visit to Boston uncomfortable. So here are the number
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine,
three one ten thirty. And if you live in Boston
(14:07):
and you have never seen a rat, you know, I
would suggest you go see an optometrist as soon as
possible and get fitted for glasses. No, I'm I'm joking
when I say that. I would love to know if
this is a concern to you, because it should be,
because it is. They will always try to get somewhere.
They want what you have. What what do you have?
(14:30):
You have water, you have access to water, you have food,
and you also have shelter. So if a rat can
decide to find a way into your cellar and during
the winter can be a heck of a lot warmer
in your cellar than somewhere else out being outside, they
(14:51):
will do that. They have. Rats are survivors. I mean,
rats are like cockroaches. They they're everywhere. They survive and
you've got to be aware of them. And if you're
not aware of them, uh, they will take over where
you live. And it's tougher in a city like Boston.
Six seven thirty. We take a quick break for the
(15:12):
news six one, seven ninety. Got a couple of callers
coming in. I'd love to hear from you. If you
think it's a problem. What should the city do about
it that they're not doing. I mean, it's all well
and good to put up a nice uh page here,
City of Boston page and talk about the Boston Road
and Action Plan. But is there ever a listing or
(15:35):
information from the city that says, hey, we uh, you
know rat poison. I mean, you know, what do you
do if you put rat poison out? Some people are
going to be upset about it because they're afraid that
that federal dogs or federal cats could to get into it.
I get all of that, But where do you draw
the line. What are you willing to do to get
(15:57):
rid of rats in Boston? Because unless you authorize the
city to take action, they they will overtake, they'll overtake
the city. Six one, seven two thirty, six, seven thirty
coming right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, this is not an overwhelming response. I would think
that most people in Boston would would want to talk
about rats. Now if it's not a problem. If you
don't think rats are a problem in Boston and you
live in Boston, I think I think you're you're you're
kind of ignoring a problem. But that's okay. We'll give
(16:42):
you a chance to talk about it, and if not,
we'll move to something else. Let me go to Paul
in Dorchester, Paul, I appreciate your calling. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I'm okay, Dan. There's a lot of rats in Dorchester,
and uh, I'll tell you if they're in Boston, they're everywhere,
and even out in the suburbs when they do and
construction on the gas lines or something. They come from everywhere.
And I got a couple of suggestions. Now I don't know,
I have four, well four things now on the dumpsters.
(17:11):
Could the people that do the pickups themselves, that own
the dumpsters and make money off it, could they make
some sort of an adapter where they put on like
I don't know, if I can mention there's a little
green pellet that I use to kill rats. You know,
if once when they change the dumpster, when they pick
(17:33):
up the dirt, could they change the little trap sort
of thing on each dumpster. Each dumpster could have a
little adapter with like one of these little pellets on
it that attracts the rats and they eat them. Now,
that's one possible thing, is making it with you.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think that's a great idea. I will tell you
that there's a certain group of Bostonians. Some people will say, well,
how do you keep the feral cats and the federal
dogs from eating that stuff too. So that's going to
be you know, there's always people out there who are
going to raise an objection, and until the city is
overrun with rats, uh, they will prevail. But you got
(18:11):
to do something. I mean, if nothing else, give them
birth control pills.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Speaking of the cats, speaking of the feral cats. Now,
when when Boston originally had the problems the the the
forefathers used Boston terriers to kill rats. Now, Boston terriers
will kill rats like you have no in about ten seconds,
they'll shake it left and right and the rats dead.
(18:37):
And I don't know if we can have Boston terrier patrols.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Or I don't see why not.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
I would rather see you know what I mean, Like
you get the guys out in New York wearing red hats.
We could have Boston terrier patrols or rats. But how
about a bounty? Damn? What if we offered a bounty
on each rat? If we could attract people to like
that one time there was bounties believing it or not
on seals in Boston habits, like a twenty five dollar bounty.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The problem is that most people would freak out with
they wouldn't want to even go near a rat.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I mean, well, not everybody's a crocodile hunter, you know.
I mean, but somebody may go after it. Now, let
me tell you. Now, in France, believe it or not,
one day a month, on Thursday, they serve rat and
it's a specialty and it's a delicacy and people get
dressed up in tuxedos and gowns to go to this
(19:37):
Thursday once a month and they dine eloquently, on on
on rat.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You're not pulling my leg, right, I mean, you sound
too serious.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
And I'm not, even though the leg is one of
the better portions of the rat. I hear from John
Dean who had to go He's to face his fear
he had to eat a rat. But that's another thing
that maybe we need more recipes for rat. You know,
like they're trying to get rid of the green crabs,
(20:08):
and one of the things they're doing is they're trying
to come up with recipes for green crabs. Seriously, I'm
not suggesting that we make that.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
We had a woman on about that last week, by
the way, Okay, and yeah, I had never heard of
green crabs. I can make a joke out of it.
About it right now, but I'm not going to. If
you get my drift, well.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I means I'm going about it MC ratburger. We could
see them to Democrats, they'd go crazy for them. We're
gonna get a pied piper an.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, I'm want you here. Well, here's the deal. I'm
looking at this right here. This is the story out
of the BBC eating bamboo rats in China. Uh, Chinese
rat delicacies explained. And then and then the BBC has
one here that says seven countries where rats are on
(21:00):
the menu that uh, it says the Indian stated by
har rats Apparently there. I guess there's some countries around
the world where oh my god. Yeah, but I gotta
tell you, it doesn't look to me like France is
(21:21):
one of them. But I'll but I will take your
word for it, because, hey, the French eat snails, so
if they eat snails, why.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Not rats, right, I'd rather speral cats around than than
dirty rats. You know, a bounty, I don't know how
you figure out how much it would be worth. Maybe
a quarter. I mean, there's so many of them they
would add up. You could make a lot of money
if you wanted to go to the town. Paul, you've
come up with some.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Good ideas, and let's see if others want to comment
on it. I think it's a good suggestion. Uh yeah,
if you brought in a rat carcass you bring a
rac carcass in, that's yeah. The other thing, too, is
I do think that if they put around, if they
put birth control for rats, put put birth control pills
in the base of dumpers, dumpsters and around dumpsters, make
(22:07):
them nice, tasty little pellets. I think that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And they can do it once a week when they
when they empty the barrel, they can re all right, Paul,
put the dumpster guys making money.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Well, that's true too. Yeah, I'm not opposed to that.
I'm not a posed I think it's a great idea.
Thank you much, Paul. We'll talk soon. Let me go
to Susan in Duxbury. Susan, you don't have any rats
in Duxbury. I'm sure right.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Fully two legged. So again, I work with animal control.
And the reason I wanted to call is that I'm
vehemently opposed to the poison because what happens is the
raptors end up grabbing the rats and then they ingest
them and it kills them. So you lose your owls,
(22:57):
you lose your you know, redtail hawk, that type of thing.
We get that all the time.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Here.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
We get calls for you know, distressed birds of prey
and it's because they've grabbed the rat. So, you know,
any kind of trapping. Of course, you know, if you
have a certain amount of feral cats, the feral cats
will kill the rats. If you remember back on the
bubonic plague, the reason that spread so quickly is because
you know, they got rid of the cat population and
(23:25):
then of course the wrap population. Multiplayer.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Well that's what And you know, I must tell you,
I remember saw I saw a story last year. I
think there was an owl or or it might have
been an eagle that had ingested a rat. And yeah,
I think that's a concern. But but the other concern
that I have is the disease that rats spread. You
(23:50):
mentioned the bubonic plague, right that we could have we
could still have that here. What do you do? I suggested,
get a lot of birth control pills up there for rats.
I totally agree, yeah, yep, okay, And no one should
have any religious.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
All and you know trap trapping is a great way
to go. Obviously, this is you know, humane traps or
some kind of trap.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Where will let me ask you this, what do you
say this? This is where we might disagree. You're saying
humane traps for rats. So you trap the rat and
the rats alive, what do you do with them at
that point?
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Well, you humanely kill them, you know some I the
reason I'm saying that is because you know, some people
get really hysterical about any kind of affront to any
kind of animal, and you know, being an animal control
I don't want to see any any animal hurt. However,
if you have an overpopulation, you know a trap is
(24:50):
the best and quickest way to end that. But some people.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Object to that.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
So ye, so I have no issue with using traps.
Use them in my own house up north, and they're
very effective and it's quick and painless, and you know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
We'll payless for you with me. Maybe not, maybe not for.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
The rat's not going to be loving it, but but
it's better than having, you know, our rat suffer until
it meets its end.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You know, Look, if I step if I step on
an end and I see that the end has not
died and he's still or she's still finish it off. However, however,
I think that the PEED people on this subject are
just way over the top, Meaning so I have to
(25:42):
put rat traps out there in which the rat goes
in and then the rat can't get out. Uh, that's
that sounds lovely, But at some point you're going to
have to kill him. And you know, I think that
that some of the PEED people would say, well, don't
kill him, bring him out to western Massachusetts and let
them forage in the in the woods. I don't think
(26:03):
you want to do that to Western Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Well, not to mention, we don't allow and I don't
think the state allows on animals to get relocated because
when you do that, they're now infringing on another creature's territory.
So you don't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, it's a little that gets a little crazy. That
gets a little crazy too, I mean, you know, I
mean it's like it's so easy for people who never
have to deal with it. But if you live in
Boston and you pay, you pay a lot of money
to live on on Newbury Street, or or to have
a place on Newbury Street, or to be on Commonwealth
(26:41):
Avenue on Marlborough Street. Those places are infested with rats. Okay, yeah,
and a lot of it is our own unwillingness to
buy dumpsters which will close tightly and firmly and never allow.
But the rats can slither up. Then they sneak in
and they have they have lunch, they have breakfast. Susan,
(27:04):
thanks very much. It's great to hear from you. I
think you raised a good point. I would say, you
do what you gotta do to get rid of them,
because at some point, at some point, there's going to
be a big disease that's going to be spread. And
I know we think about it, well, the bubonic plague,
the Black death, that's all from the dark Ages. Well,
the ages will get pretty dark as we find, as
(27:26):
we find.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
But my main reasons for calling is I really discourage
people from using poison because they you know, they may
have it in the house, but the rat will go outside,
which means the raptors will get them. And there's nothing
worse than picking up an owl that's in its last
breath because it's ingested, or rap that's eaten poison, because
it kills them too. And I you know, we want
to target. We want to target the pest. We don't
(27:50):
want to target, you know, things that we cherish, which
is the raptors.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Okay, I'm with you, I'm with you. But as they say,
I think the traps are fine. At least I'm okay
with land traps. Thanks Susan, talk to you soon. Have
a great night.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Thank you so much. Take care Dan six one.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Seven, two four ten thirty six one seven nine three
one ten thirty. If there are some peda types out
there who want to tell me that rats are good
for the environment or whatever, Okay, that's fine. Uh, let's
keep it rolling. Six one seven, two five four ten
thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty. I
got some open lines. I'd love to hear from folks
in Boston because that's the problem. That's the problem, that's
(28:28):
where the population is. And I gotta tell you it's
not going away, at least under the current sets of circumstances.
And uh, eventually we're going to have real problems, meaning
we're going to have a child attacked or bitten in
a you know, it'll happen. It'll happen. I'm trying to
prevent it. I'd love to have you joined the conversation.
(28:49):
We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on you BZ,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
We're talking about rats specifically in Boston. That's where they exist.
The first day of a partial spring today, I mean
it got over sixty degrees, So I thought this would
be a good opportunity for us to talk about the
roadent problem in Boston. There was a Boston Rodent Action Plan,
probably none of you were aware of that. It was
(29:18):
formulated and publicized last summer. We went over some of that.
It has all sorts of advice for city residents. It's
important to consider for this is now for tenant. It's
important to consider both the outside and inside of your
home in your sanitation efforts. Yeah, store trash and a
proper receptacle. It doesn't help if it's a proper receptacle
(29:43):
that doesn't have the cover. Comes come down to prevent
you ever ever take a walk in any of the
back alleys there between Newberry Street and Cornwelf Avenue. I'm
telling you it's it's not a pretty site. Well between
Boilston and nob Re Street. Not clean up dog wasist,
rats and mice love to eat your dog's waist. Do
(30:06):
not feed the birds, and eating food can attract rudents
and other vermin. Let's go to Joe and Bridgewater. I
don't think they have any rats in Bridgewater. Hey, Joe,
how are you tona?
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Well, depends on what you define as rats.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
We're talking about the four legged type. Joe, forget you
forget your political leaders down there.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
So so I lived. I grew up like a mile
away from where you did in iPark and lived in
the city for many years. And you know, the last
time I think you talked about this, you mentioned someone
of the experts came on and mentioned that you could
chemically alter their ability to reproduce. So they were gonna base,
(30:52):
they were gonna plant baits down. And I wonder if
there's any any results of that.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Well, I don't know. We tried. We tried to get
the renowned, as the City of Boston describes him, renowned
urban rodentologist, doctor Bobby Corgan. He wrote this report last
summer detailing the factors contributing to Boston's rodent population. I mean,
there wasn't a lot in it that most people couldn't
(31:21):
have figured out, you know, you'll leave, you know, you
throw trash on the street, you dump your your pizza
crust as you're walking down the street, you leave your
coffee cups, you know, and you don't put trash in
in receptacles that are tight, you know. You know what
the result is common sense that we didn't have much
(31:41):
common sense anymore?
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Can I can? I? So I have a lot of
family members that of Boston fire. And I got to
tell you a story about a kitchen fire in Chinatown
that my brother responded to. And you know, it was
a sea of of of just discussed. You know, it's
like something out of a horror movie. And every every
(32:05):
you know, we're putting out the fire and they have
to knock over the bins and the curtons that are
stored down there, and there's rats everywhere. And then there's
a little crate over in the corner and my brothers,
you know, the captain actually looks at it and asks
the cook and it was they asked the cook, and
(32:25):
the cook says, it's beach chicken.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It was golf beach chicken, called.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
The beach chicken. Oh and very good, very good. They
had fifty seagulls in a crate in that that's the
last time I went to China's Cow or anything.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
It's just unbelievable, how disgusting.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Some that's pretty creative. That's pretty creative to call it
beach chicken.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Beach chicken, Well, you.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Don't, you know what the old joke is anything that
like that. You say, Oh, it tastes just like chicken.
It doesn't matter what it is. Oh yeah, it's just
like it's just like chicken fried up and you won't
know the difference.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
All my always thought it was a federal offense to
actually use seagull so just because they clean the beaches
in the environment.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, well, I would think that there's probably a lot
of things that are federal, that are federal offenses that
probably people either don't realize or ignore. Okay, I mean,
you know, I I slowed down the other day. I
was driving and all of a sudden, this Canadian goose
is walking across. It was a back road. It was
over in Cambridge, right by the Charles River cut through
(33:40):
I take to get to my gym, and this golden
this Canadian goose. Uh he was or she was intent
on traversing the entire road at their pace and there's
no way, you know, because that is a federal offense
if you intentionally strike the Canadian goose they have. You know, now,
(34:01):
maybe when with President Trump, he's gonna, you know, remove
these as part of the tariffs, remove the protection for
the Canadian geese. You never know. But until that happens, right, well,
he just the only thing he could do is remove
the protection. But no, it's a federal law. And so
(34:22):
I'm sitting there. It was only like three minutes, okay,
but it seemed like three hours because this this Canadian
goose is looking at me like, you're not going to
run me over. I know that you're not even going
to beat the horn at me because if I have
a heart attack and flip over here, they're going to
accuse you of killing me. So I'm taking the globe.
(34:45):
Wouldn't they love that? Imagine Yvonne, that that crazy conservative
talk show host slew a Canadian goose. Yeah but anyway, No, Look,
the bottom line is that Boston has a lot of rats.
It sounds like the people don't care about it, because
we only got Paul from Dorchester. And guess what if
(35:05):
people don't care about it, there's no reason that the
mayor or anyone else should should take it and make
it a top priority. Simple as that.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
So I was stating a girl that lived on Hemingway Street.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, I went to go.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
Fire up the grill, and you wouldn't believe what jumped
out at me. I rather grill in the trash, and
I took her. I was living in Hingham at the time,
and I took their trash every day from her apartment.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
And either that or we're eating out tonight, ladies.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
We did that night.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
That was Hey, Joe, I got to run here. I
got the ten o'clock stare at me in the face.
Thanks for calling in, Joe. I really appreciate the stories.
Thank you much. That's a great call.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
All right.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
We have three really good calls that hour, and I
want to thank specifically Paul Susan from Duxbury and Joe
for Bridgewater. Back on night Side, right after this, the
ten o'clock news go talk about violence in America. We
got to tone it down, folks.
He's night side with Dan Ray I WBSY cost In Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Fifteen to one, a good old fashioned pictures duel at
George Stein browner Field. That's what really hurts. They're not
playing at the Trop because the trop lost its roof
in the big hurricane. Which one I forget. I think
it was Milton, one of them down there last fall.
Whoa fifteen to one? Well, the good news is they'll
(00:30):
save their their run scoring for tomorrow night maybe, or
tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon. Good welcome back, everybody. That's a
Monday night. As a friend of mine calls it, moan day,
the Red Sox fans will be moaning tonight. That is
for sure, ugly ugly after a pretty good game yesterday.
I enjoyed watching Garrett Crochet. I was in a gym
(00:51):
yesterday afternoon watching that and he was dealing. He was dealing.
I thought he was going to get the no no,
but it didn't work out that way. Okay, we are
going to talk about a couple of things tonight coming
up at ten o'clock. My intention is to talk about
three theoretically unrelated but I think related events. I'm going
(01:12):
to talk about the bombing, the fire bombing of the
Pennsylvania Governor's mansion, that is where Governor Shapiro, the governor
of Pennsylvania lives. They actually have a governor's mansion, so
it was the state property of the property of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I might because they, like Us and
Virginia Kentucky are the only four states of Comma Wealths.
(01:34):
So some nutjob nutjob decided that he wanted to burn
down and probably was an anti Semitic action. It happened
on the first night of Passover. And by the way,
this is a very holy week, both for Jewish friends
and Christian friends. This is East Week for the Christian community,
(01:57):
which will culminate with Easter next Sunday morning. And this
of course is the This now is the third night
of Passover. So for my Jewish listeners who may be
listening and some are not, some are celebrating the meals
of Passover with family and friends, and we understand that.
(02:19):
But please, if you have friends who are Jewish during
this week, wish them a happy season or happy Passover,
and obviously the same towards Christian friends. As we approach
Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, and then Easter Sunday,
So do you have that incident. And by the way,
(02:40):
I saw a picture of this knucklehead and if he
didn't look like he had about ten screws loose. There
was some late video tonight that I saw. I saw
he's already been arraigned in Pennsylvania. So then you have
this seventeen year old we'll get into it later out
in Wisconsin who kills his parents. See, his mom was
(03:00):
only thirty five. Thirty five year old woman is his mother,
and he kills her and his stepdad fifty one. And
I guess he hangs in the house for a couple
of weeks finding as much money or whatever else he
can find. Unbelievable, what's going on in this world? And
(03:23):
it was all his idea of a plot to assassinate
President Trump. And then that against the backdrop of all
of the violence against Tesla owners, Tesla dealerships. What's wrong
with us? What's wrong with us as a country that
we can have disagreements politically and we have to resort
(03:45):
to this sort of violence. So we'll get to that
at ten o'clock. I want to talk about a more
mundane issue, and that is rats. No, I'm not talking
about people who snitch or anything like that. I'm talking
about rodents four legged kind. And I want to focus
on Boston because a year ago Boston came up with
(04:06):
what they called wrap Boston Rodent Action Plan. I wonder
how much the city paid to come up to come
up with that acronym, the Boston Rodent Action Plan, and
this was You go to the website if you want.
But with the first day that even came close to
(04:28):
being a spring day today, it was great. It looked
as if some of the trees were at least, you know,
extending the possibility that they might bloom some of the trees.
You know as well as I do, that once spring arrives,
the rats are going to be out in force. Now
(04:48):
they have been out in force all winter. You just
didn't see them because it was getting dark at five
o'clock at night for you know, several months during the winter,
and they do that best work when it's dark. Well,
I would love to know how is Boston doing with
(05:09):
controlling our rat population. People have told me, hey, you're
a city that lives on the harbor. You're a city
that has wharfs, and therefore you'll never get rid of
your rat population. But I got to tell you that
is one animal that does freak me out. If I
(05:32):
had a choice between seeing a bear or a rat
in my backyard, I'd prefer to see the bear, particularly
if it was a small bear. But rats as well
as snakes, But we don't have to worry about snakes
up here. If you live in Florida, you can talk
about snakes. I'd like to hear from you. Do you
(05:53):
feel that your neighborhood in Boston has been cleaned up?
They have this again, this BRAP Boston Rodent Action Plan.
You get it, b r A P is in Plan
brap uh. It's a new initiative to combat the rodent
population of the city of Boston. Well, at least it's
(06:15):
there's an acknowledgment of that. We tried to reach the
renowned urban rodentologist, doctor Bobby Corrigan today. He authored the
report last summer. I don't know that I would want
to be a renowned urban rodent knowlogist, rodent ologist, but
again we would have loved to have had him on.
We had him on before. So in the in the
(06:37):
plan that they have the city agencies, the following city
agency will combine resources and coordinate with other levels of government,
property owners, and the general public. That's you to help
reduce rodent infestation throughout the city. What are the groups?
Inspectional Services, the Boston Housing Authority, Boston Water and Sewer,
(06:58):
Boston Public Schools are Operation's Cabinet, whatever that is, Boston
Public Health Commission, the Department of Public Works, Boston three
to one one, Boston Parks and Recreation. Come on over,
the rat Office of Neighborhood Services, and the Department of
Innovation and Technology. How about that? Huh? The Boston Rodent Report.
(07:20):
You can read the entire report at this website, which
is Boston dot gov slash Department slash Inspectional hyphen Services
Boston slash Boston hyphen rodent. I just put in Boston
rat problem and it'll bring it here. The report highlights
(07:40):
various causes and effects related to road and infestation. I
don't need a report to know what's causing the road
and infestation. People in Boston are people who do not
keep their garbage in containers that are that are imperviable,
unpermeable by rats. People who leave excuse me, who leave
(08:04):
pizza boxes on the street who throw, you know, pizza
crusts as they're walking down Newberry Street. Poor yeah, poor
trash mitigation. But that means is we're slobs A lot
of people in Boston or slobs storage and removal Boston
Ever walked down any of the alleyways between commav and
Newbury Street. Huh, Try that someday if you want to
(08:27):
lose your lunch. Boston, being one of the oldest cities
in the Northeast, has infrastructure that greatly influences the rodent population.
The densely populated neighborhoods with intertwining alleyways and old sewer systems,
along with century old cobble or brick streets and sidewalks,
provide an environment for rodents to thrive. I have no
(08:48):
idea what brick streets, cobble or brick streets and sidewalks do,
but that's okay. Doctor Korn' would report emphasizes how human
behavior significantly contributes to the rodent population, which he calls
a modern day city conundrum. Oh, I like that word conundrum.
Storing trash and plastic bags is a norm in some
areas of the city. The brats just gnaw through those
(09:11):
babies which is a key factor in the rodent population.
Changing this behavior is critical to reducing the rodent population,
and it needs to be done consistently throughout the city.
That is so accurate, so correct. I'm looking at some
pictures here of overflowing dumpsters, dumpsters that don't have any
(09:31):
top on them. All the rat does is climbs up
into the dumpster and it's lunchtime. It's a buffet. Be informed.
The City of Boston diligently educates property owners and residents
regarding the proper method to store trash. The key to
quality urban rodent control is eliminating and limiting access to food, water,
and shelter, all of which rodents need to thrive. Okay,
(09:55):
enough of the experts. I want to hear from you.
How do you think Boston that he's doing. Give the
city well, again, this is non intended as a criticism
of the mayor. Give the city rating number one, but
also give your fellow residents a rating because my suspicion
is my suspicion is that most people in Boston think
(10:16):
other people are kind of swaps. I get around Boston
enough to know that rats are going to be a
problem this summer. This spring, and you're going to start
to see him soon, depending upon where you where you're
going to walk. Will you see them in the middle
of the Boston common I don't know. My question is
(10:36):
where have you seen them? Six one seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three one ten thirty.
Give us a call. I think if we talk about it,
maybe it will wake some people up and they will
put their trash inside of plastic or or steel containers dumpsters,
(10:57):
and they will make sure that they are not overflowing
and that the dumpster will be walked so the rats
can't get in. Talking about rats in Boston, and we're
talking about the four legged fuck God. We're not talking
about politicians, no no, no, no jokes about politicians indicted
or otherwise. We're talking about rodents. And can Boston ever ever?
(11:20):
They can't get rid of them, but can we control
the rodent population in Boston? I'll tell you if you
see one, you never forget them. They are not cute
little critters. They are not whatsoever. Six one seven, two thirty,
six one seven, nine, three one ten thirty. And those
of you in suburbia who don't see rats, you're lucky
(11:43):
coming to Boston if you want to see some rats
back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So here's my question. I want to broaden this question
a little bit. Obviously, no one seems to be particularly
interested about the rat population in Boston. I don't live
in Boston, but I committed Boston occasionally, and it's a
concern that I have because rats do carry disease, so
it's more than just an ugly appearance in an alleyway.
(12:18):
The deaths recently of Gene Hackman and his wife I
think have been attributed to the fact that somehow rats,
you know, I don't think get too descriptive here, but
somehow rats have gotten into their house and they carry diseases.
They carry diseases, and we got to get rid of them.
And it just seems to me that I'm not here
(12:40):
again to blame may Or Wu in this one. I
can blame her for a lot of things, but not
on this because this problem predated her, and I suspect
it's probably unless some real action is taken, will postate her.
You got to have dumpsters which close completely. You can't
have dumpsters which get thrown around and tossed around. Rats
(13:02):
can kind of sneak in, climb up, sneak in, not
a problem. And as long as the food stuff is
exposed and in those dumpsters with some form of either
a paper bag or a plastic bag, the rats are
going to get through them. So I'd love to hear
from some of you feel free. You don't have to
(13:25):
be a Boston resident, although I'd love to hear Boston residents.
Is this is it on a concern that you have
or is it something that you don't talk about because
you don't want people to realize that that Boston has
a huge rat population. And again, if you're in the
restaurant areas in Boston and you know you won't see them,
(13:46):
they are pretty cagy, but they will. They will come
out and they can scurry across the street in front
of you very easily. And it makes look, it makes
a visit to Boston uncomfortable. So here are the number
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine,
three one ten thirty. And if you live in Boston
(14:07):
and you have never seen a rat, you know, I
would suggest you go see an optometrist as soon as
possible and get fitted for glasses. No, I'm I'm joking
when I say that. I would love to know if
this is a concern to you, because it should be,
because it is. They will always try to get somewhere.
They want what you have. What what do you have?
(14:30):
You have water, you have access to water, you have food,
and you also have shelter. So if a rat can
decide to find a way into your cellar and during
the winter can be a heck of a lot warmer
in your cellar than somewhere else out being outside, they
(14:51):
will do that. They have. Rats are survivors. I mean,
rats are like cockroaches. They they're everywhere. They survive and
you've got to be aware of them. And if you're
not aware of them, uh, they will take over where
you live. And it's tougher in a city like Boston.
Six seven thirty. We take a quick break for the
(15:12):
news six one, seven ninety. Got a couple of callers
coming in. I'd love to hear from you. If you
think it's a problem. What should the city do about
it that they're not doing. I mean, it's all well
and good to put up a nice uh page here,
City of Boston page and talk about the Boston Road
and Action Plan. But is there ever a listing or
(15:35):
information from the city that says, hey, we uh, you
know rat poison. I mean, you know, what do you
do if you put rat poison out? Some people are
going to be upset about it because they're afraid that
that federal dogs or federal cats could to get into it.
I get all of that, But where do you draw
the line. What are you willing to do to get
(15:57):
rid of rats in Boston? Because unless you authorize the
city to take action, they they will overtake, they'll overtake
the city. Six one, seven two thirty, six, seven thirty
coming right back on night Side.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, this is not an overwhelming response. I would think
that most people in Boston would would want to talk
about rats. Now if it's not a problem. If you
don't think rats are a problem in Boston and you
live in Boston, I think I think you're you're you're
kind of ignoring a problem. But that's okay. We'll give
(16:42):
you a chance to talk about it, and if not,
we'll move to something else. Let me go to Paul
in Dorchester, Paul, I appreciate your calling. How are you tonight?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I'm okay, Dan. There's a lot of rats in Dorchester,
and uh, I'll tell you if they're in Boston, they're everywhere,
and even out in the suburbs when they do and
construction on the gas lines or something. They come from everywhere.
And I got a couple of suggestions. Now I don't know,
I have four, well four things now on the dumpsters.
(17:11):
Could the people that do the pickups themselves, that own
the dumpsters and make money off it, could they make
some sort of an adapter where they put on like
I don't know, if I can mention there's a little
green pellet that I use to kill rats. You know,
if once when they change the dumpster, when they pick
(17:33):
up the dirt, could they change the little trap sort
of thing on each dumpster. Each dumpster could have a
little adapter with like one of these little pellets on
it that attracts the rats and they eat them. Now,
that's one possible thing, is making it with you.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think that's a great idea. I will tell you
that there's a certain group of Bostonians. Some people will say, well,
how do you keep the feral cats and the federal
dogs from eating that stuff too. So that's going to
be you know, there's always people out there who are
going to raise an objection, and until the city is
overrun with rats, uh, they will prevail. But you got
(18:11):
to do something. I mean, if nothing else, give them
birth control pills.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Speaking of the cats, speaking of the feral cats. Now,
when when Boston originally had the problems the the the
forefathers used Boston terriers to kill rats. Now, Boston terriers
will kill rats like you have no in about ten seconds,
they'll shake it left and right and the rats dead.
(18:37):
And I don't know if we can have Boston terrier patrols.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Or I don't see why not.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
I would rather see you know what I mean, Like
you get the guys out in New York wearing red hats.
We could have Boston terrier patrols or rats. But how
about a bounty? Damn? What if we offered a bounty
on each rat? If we could attract people to like
that one time there was bounties believing it or not
on seals in Boston habits, like a twenty five dollar bounty.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The problem is that most people would freak out with
they wouldn't want to even go near a rat.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I mean, well, not everybody's a crocodile hunter, you know.
I mean, but somebody may go after it. Now, let
me tell you. Now, in France, believe it or not,
one day a month, on Thursday, they serve rat and
it's a specialty and it's a delicacy and people get
dressed up in tuxedos and gowns to go to this
(19:37):
Thursday once a month and they dine eloquently, on on
on rat.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You're not pulling my leg, right, I mean, you sound
too serious.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
And I'm not, even though the leg is one of
the better portions of the rat. I hear from John
Dean who had to go He's to face his fear
he had to eat a rat. But that's another thing
that maybe we need more recipes for rat. You know,
like they're trying to get rid of the green crabs,
(20:08):
and one of the things they're doing is they're trying
to come up with recipes for green crabs. Seriously, I'm
not suggesting that we make that.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
We had a woman on about that last week, by
the way, Okay, and yeah, I had never heard of
green crabs. I can make a joke out of it.
About it right now, but I'm not going to. If
you get my drift, well.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I means I'm going about it MC ratburger. We could
see them to Democrats, they'd go crazy for them. We're
gonna get a pied piper an.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, I'm want you here. Well, here's the deal. I'm
looking at this right here. This is the story out
of the BBC eating bamboo rats in China. Uh, Chinese
rat delicacies explained. And then and then the BBC has
one here that says seven countries where rats are on
(21:00):
the menu that uh, it says the Indian stated by
har rats Apparently there. I guess there's some countries around
the world where oh my god. Yeah, but I gotta
tell you, it doesn't look to me like France is
(21:21):
one of them. But I'll but I will take your
word for it, because, hey, the French eat snails, so
if they eat snails, why.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Not rats, right, I'd rather speral cats around than than
dirty rats. You know, a bounty, I don't know how
you figure out how much it would be worth. Maybe
a quarter. I mean, there's so many of them they
would add up. You could make a lot of money
if you wanted to go to the town. Paul, you've
come up with some.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Good ideas, and let's see if others want to comment
on it. I think it's a good suggestion. Uh yeah,
if you brought in a rat carcass you bring a
rac carcass in, that's yeah. The other thing, too, is
I do think that if they put around, if they
put birth control for rats, put put birth control pills
in the base of dumpers, dumpsters and around dumpsters, make
(22:07):
them nice, tasty little pellets. I think that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And they can do it once a week when they
when they empty the barrel, they can re all right, Paul,
put the dumpster guys making money.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Well, that's true too. Yeah, I'm not opposed to that.
I'm not a posed I think it's a great idea.
Thank you much, Paul. We'll talk soon. Let me go
to Susan in Duxbury. Susan, you don't have any rats
in Duxbury. I'm sure right.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Fully two legged. So again, I work with animal control.
And the reason I wanted to call is that I'm
vehemently opposed to the poison because what happens is the
raptors end up grabbing the rats and then they ingest
them and it kills them. So you lose your owls,
(22:57):
you lose your you know, redtail hawk, that type of thing.
We get that all the time.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Here.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
We get calls for you know, distressed birds of prey
and it's because they've grabbed the rat. So, you know,
any kind of trapping. Of course, you know, if you
have a certain amount of feral cats, the feral cats
will kill the rats. If you remember back on the
bubonic plague, the reason that spread so quickly is because
you know, they got rid of the cat population and
(23:25):
then of course the wrap population. Multiplayer.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Well that's what And you know, I must tell you,
I remember saw I saw a story last year. I
think there was an owl or or it might have
been an eagle that had ingested a rat. And yeah,
I think that's a concern. But but the other concern
that I have is the disease that rats spread. You
(23:50):
mentioned the bubonic plague, right that we could have we
could still have that here. What do you do? I suggested,
get a lot of birth control pills up there for rats.
I totally agree, yeah, yep, okay, And no one should
have any religious.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
All and you know trap trapping is a great way
to go. Obviously, this is you know, humane traps or
some kind of trap.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Where will let me ask you this, what do you
say this? This is where we might disagree. You're saying
humane traps for rats. So you trap the rat and
the rats alive, what do you do with them at
that point?
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Well, you humanely kill them, you know some I the
reason I'm saying that is because you know, some people
get really hysterical about any kind of affront to any
kind of animal, and you know, being an animal control
I don't want to see any any animal hurt. However,
if you have an overpopulation, you know a trap is
(24:50):
the best and quickest way to end that. But some people.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
Object to that.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
So ye, so I have no issue with using traps.
Use them in my own house up north, and they're
very effective and it's quick and painless, and you know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
We'll payless for you with me. Maybe not, maybe not for.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
The rat's not going to be loving it, but but
it's better than having, you know, our rat suffer until
it meets its end.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You know, Look, if I step if I step on
an end and I see that the end has not
died and he's still or she's still finish it off. However, however,
I think that the PEED people on this subject are
just way over the top, Meaning so I have to
(25:42):
put rat traps out there in which the rat goes
in and then the rat can't get out. Uh, that's
that sounds lovely, But at some point you're going to
have to kill him. And you know, I think that
that some of the PEED people would say, well, don't
kill him, bring him out to western Massachusetts and let
them forage in the in the woods. I don't think
(26:03):
you want to do that to Western Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Well, not to mention, we don't allow and I don't
think the state allows on animals to get relocated because
when you do that, they're now infringing on another creature's territory.
So you don't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, it's a little that gets a little crazy. That
gets a little crazy too, I mean, you know, I
mean it's like it's so easy for people who never
have to deal with it. But if you live in
Boston and you pay, you pay a lot of money
to live on on Newbury Street, or or to have
a place on Newbury Street, or to be on Commonwealth
(26:41):
Avenue on Marlborough Street. Those places are infested with rats. Okay, yeah,
and a lot of it is our own unwillingness to
buy dumpsters which will close tightly and firmly and never allow.
But the rats can slither up. Then they sneak in
and they have they have lunch, they have breakfast. Susan,
(27:04):
thanks very much. It's great to hear from you. I
think you raised a good point. I would say, you
do what you gotta do to get rid of them,
because at some point, at some point, there's going to
be a big disease that's going to be spread. And
I know we think about it, well, the bubonic plague,
the Black death, that's all from the dark Ages. Well,
the ages will get pretty dark as we find, as
(27:26):
we find.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
But my main reasons for calling is I really discourage
people from using poison because they you know, they may
have it in the house, but the rat will go outside,
which means the raptors will get them. And there's nothing
worse than picking up an owl that's in its last
breath because it's ingested, or rap that's eaten poison, because
it kills them too. And I you know, we want
to target. We want to target the pest. We don't
(27:50):
want to target, you know, things that we cherish, which
is the raptors.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Okay, I'm with you, I'm with you. But as they say,
I think the traps are fine. At least I'm okay
with land traps. Thanks Susan, talk to you soon. Have
a great night.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Thank you so much. Take care Dan six one.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Seven, two four ten thirty six one seven nine three
one ten thirty. If there are some peda types out
there who want to tell me that rats are good
for the environment or whatever, Okay, that's fine. Uh, let's
keep it rolling. Six one seven, two five four ten
thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty. I
got some open lines. I'd love to hear from folks
in Boston because that's the problem. That's the problem, that's
(28:28):
where the population is. And I gotta tell you it's
not going away, at least under the current sets of circumstances.
And uh, eventually we're going to have real problems, meaning
we're going to have a child attacked or bitten in
a you know, it'll happen. It'll happen. I'm trying to
prevent it. I'd love to have you joined the conversation.
(28:49):
We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on you BZ,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
We're talking about rats specifically in Boston. That's where they exist.
The first day of a partial spring today, I mean
it got over sixty degrees, So I thought this would
be a good opportunity for us to talk about the
roadent problem in Boston. There was a Boston Rodent Action Plan,
probably none of you were aware of that. It was
(29:18):
formulated and publicized last summer. We went over some of that.
It has all sorts of advice for city residents. It's
important to consider for this is now for tenant. It's
important to consider both the outside and inside of your
home in your sanitation efforts. Yeah, store trash and a
proper receptacle. It doesn't help if it's a proper receptacle
(29:43):
that doesn't have the cover. Comes come down to prevent
you ever ever take a walk in any of the
back alleys there between Newberry Street and Cornwelf Avenue. I'm
telling you it's it's not a pretty site. Well between
Boilston and nob Re Street. Not clean up dog wasist,
rats and mice love to eat your dog's waist. Do
(30:06):
not feed the birds, and eating food can attract rudents
and other vermin. Let's go to Joe and Bridgewater. I
don't think they have any rats in Bridgewater. Hey, Joe,
how are you tona?
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Well, depends on what you define as rats.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
We're talking about the four legged type. Joe, forget you
forget your political leaders down there.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
So so I lived. I grew up like a mile
away from where you did in iPark and lived in
the city for many years. And you know, the last
time I think you talked about this, you mentioned someone
of the experts came on and mentioned that you could
chemically alter their ability to reproduce. So they were gonna base,
(30:52):
they were gonna plant baits down. And I wonder if
there's any any results of that.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Well, I don't know. We tried. We tried to get
the renowned, as the City of Boston describes him, renowned
urban rodentologist, doctor Bobby Corgan. He wrote this report last
summer detailing the factors contributing to Boston's rodent population. I mean,
there wasn't a lot in it that most people couldn't
(31:21):
have figured out, you know, you'll leave, you know, you
throw trash on the street, you dump your your pizza
crust as you're walking down the street, you leave your
coffee cups, you know, and you don't put trash in
in receptacles that are tight, you know. You know what
the result is common sense that we didn't have much
(31:41):
common sense anymore?
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Can I can? I? So I have a lot of
family members that of Boston fire. And I got to
tell you a story about a kitchen fire in Chinatown
that my brother responded to. And you know, it was
a sea of of of just discussed. You know, it's
like something out of a horror movie. And every every
(32:05):
you know, we're putting out the fire and they have
to knock over the bins and the curtons that are
stored down there, and there's rats everywhere. And then there's
a little crate over in the corner and my brothers,
you know, the captain actually looks at it and asks
the cook and it was they asked the cook, and
(32:25):
the cook says, it's beach chicken.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It was golf beach chicken, called.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
The beach chicken. Oh and very good, very good. They
had fifty seagulls in a crate in that that's the
last time I went to China's Cow or anything.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
It's just unbelievable, how disgusting.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Some that's pretty creative. That's pretty creative to call it
beach chicken.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Beach chicken, Well, you.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Don't, you know what the old joke is anything that
like that. You say, Oh, it tastes just like chicken.
It doesn't matter what it is. Oh yeah, it's just
like it's just like chicken fried up and you won't
know the difference.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
All my always thought it was a federal offense to
actually use seagull so just because they clean the beaches
in the environment.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, well, I would think that there's probably a lot
of things that are federal, that are federal offenses that
probably people either don't realize or ignore. Okay, I mean,
you know, I I slowed down the other day. I
was driving and all of a sudden, this Canadian goose
is walking across. It was a back road. It was
over in Cambridge, right by the Charles River cut through
(33:40):
I take to get to my gym, and this golden
this Canadian goose. Uh he was or she was intent
on traversing the entire road at their pace and there's
no way, you know, because that is a federal offense
if you intentionally strike the Canadian goose they have. You know, now,
(34:01):
maybe when with President Trump, he's gonna, you know, remove
these as part of the tariffs, remove the protection for
the Canadian geese. You never know. But until that happens, right, well,
he just the only thing he could do is remove
the protection. But no, it's a federal law. And so
(34:22):
I'm sitting there. It was only like three minutes, okay,
but it seemed like three hours because this this Canadian
goose is looking at me like, you're not going to
run me over. I know that you're not even going
to beat the horn at me because if I have
a heart attack and flip over here, they're going to
accuse you of killing me. So I'm taking the globe.
(34:45):
Wouldn't they love that? Imagine Yvonne, that that crazy conservative
talk show host slew a Canadian goose. Yeah but anyway, No, Look,
the bottom line is that Boston has a lot of rats.
It sounds like the people don't care about it, because
we only got Paul from Dorchester. And guess what if
(35:05):
people don't care about it, there's no reason that the
mayor or anyone else should should take it and make
it a top priority. Simple as that.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
So I was stating a girl that lived on Hemingway Street.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, I went to go.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
Fire up the grill, and you wouldn't believe what jumped
out at me. I rather grill in the trash, and
I took her. I was living in Hingham at the time,
and I took their trash every day from her apartment.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
And either that or we're eating out tonight, ladies.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
We did that night.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
That was Hey, Joe, I got to run here. I
got the ten o'clock stare at me in the face.
Thanks for calling in, Joe. I really appreciate the stories.
Thank you much. That's a great call.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
All right.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
We have three really good calls that hour, and I
want to thank specifically Paul Susan from Duxbury and Joe
for Bridgewater. Back on night Side, right after this, the
ten o'clock news go talk about violence in America. We
got to tone it down, folks.
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