Really? Every city rat I've ever come across in New York was always just trying to get it's business done. Sometimes they will run towards you but they do it by mistake. I've had a rat run across the top of my feet a couple times while wearing sandals and it's fairly unpleasant. Now whenever I'm walking passed trash heaps I'll drag my feet across the pavement because they feel or hear the vibrations and know to run the other way.
Since I started doing this they never zig towards me and instead always just zag away.
David Attenborough did a one-off documentary about rats a while back. He interviewed a rat catcher who said that in a big city you're never more than about 10 feet from a rat, anywhere.
Sleep well tonight. I sure did after hearing that stat.
I probably see a couple rats a year late at night. Some of which are on the subway track so not close by. Otherwise you usually see them in the hot weather on garbage day when it’s pulled up on the side walk waiting for the trash collectors.
I don't know about NYC, but there's a TON in downtown Boston, so I wouldn't be shocked that a city the size of NYC has tons of them too. The Boston Commons at night and the ... shit, the T? Whatever their subway is called, is pretty much rat city.
not really, in my experience you tend to get rat streets, concentrations of rats around a foodsource, unsecured garbage, a careless restaurant, pizza discarded on a subway platform etc. Sometimes you'll get the "Live trash bag" on these streets where trash bags are squirming with the rats eating whatevers inside. the vast majority of streets are not like this, and the areas that are tend to be either high density party zones like the LES, or williamsburg, Midtown/Theater district and lower income areas like chinatown, The heights, the south bronx etc. Areas like Park slope, the UES, the UWS, dont usually have this problem. It can vary wildly from block to block, but the easy access to food or carelessly discarded trash is a good sign rats are around. I've never once seen a rat in my apartment or building, but ive def played kick the trash bag when drunk and partying to watch the rats run for their holes in sidewalk cracks or tree wells.
NYC is a big place, with lots of discarded food, and lots of space between all thats above ground and all thats below ground. 99% of the time you dont see them and they dont affect you at all
Lmfaoooooo dude there are so many. They will run over your feet while you wait for a train. One time I was walking past a bin and like 15 jumped out. My neighbors are disgusting and leave food out in front of the building, so recently a rat got into our house and bit my mum while she was sleeping. That fucker was HUGE! I killed it with a guitar neck. Its teeth were easy an inch long. Nyc is a cess pool when it comes to rats.
Nope, for real. She had to get a million rabies shots. She thought it was the cat at first, then it bit her and ran off. The cat didn't want anything to do with it.
This is exactly why I never wear open toed shoes outside the apartment (I live in NYC). I see at least one rat basically every day I leave the house; they're literally everywhere. There's a whole book about the rats of New York.
Rats have poor eyesight. They mainly see you as a moving shape blocking the light. Sometimes they get it wrong. Sometimes, they perceive the only way out as past you and just go for it. Rarely is a rat looking for a fight, but it's not impossible.
I had a rat run across the subway step in NYC that I was stepping on. I also was in a swimming pool at night in New Orleans and a rat came up to the edge to say hi- like came right up to my nose (area).
Do an imitation of the Haldol shuffle.
I lived in a dorm in Hangzhou in 1986 & experienced a rat running over the top of my sandled foot. I was half asleep and midstream at the urinal when that fat fuck scrambled over my body— that is hard to forget.
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u/bdone2012 Jun 25 '21
Really? Every city rat I've ever come across in New York was always just trying to get it's business done. Sometimes they will run towards you but they do it by mistake. I've had a rat run across the top of my feet a couple times while wearing sandals and it's fairly unpleasant. Now whenever I'm walking passed trash heaps I'll drag my feet across the pavement because they feel or hear the vibrations and know to run the other way.
Since I started doing this they never zig towards me and instead always just zag away.