Working for a rat free D.C.

They are rats. In this area, they are either black rats or brown rats — nocturnal dwellers, scurrying through the shadows, weighing about a pound with a chunky body and distinctive long tail.

The wild rat eats about a fifth of the world’s total food output each year and can carry more than 30 different diseases dangerous to humans, from typhus to salmonella to the bubonic plague. Rats are blamed for spreading the plague that killed 75 million people in Europe, the Middle East and Asia in the 14th century.

And Washington is overrun by them, from Lafayette Park by the White House to construction sites by the Capitol. Rats are in the alleys and garbage areas, the schools and the playgrounds, and often in homes and restaurants as well.

Adrianna Natsoulas inadvertently carried a rat home with her after stopping in a Capitol Hill pub following a day of shopping in Eastern Market. It ruined everything in her bag.

“I never put my bag on the floor anymore,” Natsoulas said.

Shortly after moving to Logan Circle in the 1990s, Danny Price was awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of a rat splashing in the toilet of his basement apartment. He grabbed a plunger and kept the rodent submerged until it drowned, he said.

“When the tail finally stopped moving, I held it down a little longer,” Price said. “I became a murderer.”

The District Department of Health officials now say they have had enough. They have declared war on rats. Under an initiative called “Rat Free DC,” officials are setting up a “community strike team” made up of staffers from the departments of Health and Public Works. The team is charged with responding to complaints and developing plans of attack. The program will target both business and residential areas, beginning with Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and U Street in Northwest before branching out to other areas, said Gerard Brown, program manager of the DOH’s Rodent and Vector Control Division.

Brown said those areas were chosen because of the large number of businesses and residents coexisting, adding that enough frustration has built up over the rat problem to change attitudes about how best to get rid of them.

“The businesses were pointing fingers at residents and residents were pointing fingers at business and nothing was getting done,” Brown said, adding that he has seen little change since officials began meeting with residents and businesses in February.

Officials call the program a “proactive” public outreach and educational campaign that they hope will cut down on the well-heeled lifestyle that D.C. rats have enjoyed for so long.

“It’s a science. It requires more than just putting poison in a hole to be effective,” Brown said. “It takes partnerships.”

It’s impossible to gauge just how widespread the District’s rat infestation is, Brown said as he helped lay poison around a small patch of land behind a homeless shelter at Second and D streets in Northwest. The patch, riddled with rat burrows, resembled a small, detonated minefield. Brown said most of his residential rat complaints come from Wards 1 and 6.

“We don’t like to deal with numbers because it’s impossible to predict how many,” Brown said. “One rat is too many.”

The District fines residents $75 and businesses $500 for violating codes, including improper trash disposal, that can lead to rat problems, Brown said. The District will also bait — for free upon request — residential buildings with three or fewer units, he said.

In its latest effort, the District might want to look across the Potomac to Alexandria, where Ed Turner has worked for nine years laying poison in sewers, along the waterfront and around restaurants in an effort to knock rats out before residents even get the chance to complain.

Turner now gets about two rodent complaints per month, he said. The city spends about $16,000 per year on its efforts, he said.

“All the other jurisdictions around us are complaint-based,” Turner said. “Here, we’re there before they call.”

As for the District, Brown works under no illusion that the problem can be completely eradicated, no matter how well the city carries out its Rat Free-D.C. program.

“Rats are genius,” Brown said. “They are going to be here after we leave.”

Tips to deter rats

The D.C. Department of Health recommends its 10 tips to help deter rodents:

1. Store garbage in metal or heavy plastic containers with tight-fitting lids.

2. Place trash outside shortly before pickup.

3. Remove weeds and debris near buildings and in yards where rats can easily hide.

4. Store food in metal or glass containers with tight fitting lids.

5. Remove uneaten pet food. Store pet food in secure containers.

6. Sweep up food remnants, litter and trash, both inside and outside homes and businesses.

7. Inspect all interior and exterior walls for cracks where rodents could enter. Seal holes with mortar.

8. Inspect all screens on windows. Replace and repair screens as necessary.

9. Add metal weather stripping and trim to doors to prevent rodents from gnawing and entering underneath.

10. Remove hiding places for rodents. Store materials such as lumber and boxes on a rack with a clean, open area underneath. Remove junk and unused materials.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com