Around New England

Newton Seeing More Rats

September 20, 2021

There have been more rats in Newton as of late.

The city has seen its rat population increase between 15 to 36 percent above normal levels, according to Boston.com.

Bobby Corrigan, a rodentologist, said the coronavirus pandemic has changed the lifestyles of rats and pushed them into more residential areas.

“There are changing patterns without a doubt,” Corrigan said, according to Boston.com. “When everybody shut down, when all the restaurants closed, and all our towns and cities, many of the rats that were depending on that trash, that food trash that goes out in our communities every night, [it] no longer was there.”