The top health official in Washington, D.C., announced on Wednesday a new pilot program dedicated to fighting rodent infestation in the nation’s capital this spring.
The district has had a problem with rats for years, with rodent complaints surging nearly 13 times between 2014 and 2024. The city is consistently ranked among the 10 cities with the worst rodent infestation rates. Mayor Muriel Bowser is committed to quelling the rat epidemic.
The DC Health Rodent Abatement Pilot will use three different control methods as part of the district’s “blitz” strategy. The methods, per the Department of Health of the District of Columbia, are second-generation anticoagulant bait placed in rat-infested burrows, first-generation anticoagulant tracking powder that rodents ingest during grooming, and a nonlethal rodent fertility control bait that reduces rodent reproduction rates over time.
Health inspectors will implement all three control methods during three-week cycles and monitor their effects on the rat population in a given area, the department said. Based on the inspection findings and observed rodent activity, follow-up actions to reduce the rat population will take place during the second and third weeks of each cycle.
“We are doing absolutely everything to get the population down and then keep it down, and the keep it down [part] is going to have to be about partnership,” Dr. Ayanna Bennett, director of DC Health, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
DC Health is partnering with four other district agencies, including the Department of Public Works and the DC Department of Buildings, for the anti-rat initiative.
“We’re going to get the rat population down, and then we’re going to come back in three weeks to see if any of those babies survived and get them too,” she added. “But they cannot stay down if they find anything to eat.”
The official urged the district’s residents to do their part by placing their trash inside garbage bins and refraining from throwing food on the district’s streets.
DC Health is rolling out the pilot program in the Adams Morgan neighborhood to start, and will expand from there depending on its success. The initiative was unveiled as part of the district’s broader spring-cleaning efforts.
“Based on the success of the pilot, we plan to expand this approach citywide, focusing on both business and residential areas with higher population density. Key factors we will evaluate include data analysis, pre‑ and post‑surveys, the number of rat burrows treated, and whether those numbers decrease following the pilot,” a DC Health spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
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The three-pronged blitz is the latest action Bowser’s administration has taken to address the district’s rat problem. In 2017, she deployed rodent control experts to target infestations on public property, among other measures.
Wednesday’s announcement shows Bowser is continuing to make the issue a priority as she prepares to finish her third term as mayor. She is not seeking reelection this year.
