The city announced some big rat news—we’re going to host the second-ever National Urban Rat Summit in September.
“Boston is a home for everyone—except rats,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu of the two-day special event on Sept. 23 & 24.
The two-day summit will bring together rat experts, academics, rat researchers, public health professionals, and municipal officials from across the country and the world to come together with the purpose of decreasing the urban rat population. The summit will also provide an opportunity for city officials to hear directly from residents about rats.
Boston launched the Boston Rodent Action Plan (BRAP) in 2024, and since then the city’s rodent control team has been utilizing new technologies to target rodent activity, better coordinate city services based on data and analytics, and tailor strategies to eliminate rodent populations in different areas.
The summit will probably discuss the success of a pilot program to give rats birth control right here in Jamaica Plain. The pilot program consisted of city officials leaving sugar-coated rat-specific birth control pellets along some blocks in Hyde Square, which stopped them from ovulating.
The summit will focus on evidence-based approaches to manage and reduce rodent populations and look at innovative, collaborative and data-driven action.
