New York City appears to be making real progress in its long-running battle with rats.

That’s good news.

Bloomberg recently reported that rat sightings reported through NYC’s 311 system fell approximately 22% during the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period last year. The decline coincides with New York City’s continuing effort to get garbage bags off sidewalks and put more trash into sealed containers.

At Bell Environmental, our reaction is pretty straightforward:

Good. Keep going.

Getting food away from rats is one of the fundamentals of effective rodent control.

But before anyone pops the champagne, it’s worth understanding what these numbers tell us—and what they don’t.

Fewer Rat Reports Are Good News

New York City’s progress isn’t limited to a single month’s data.

The Department of Sanitation reported in March that rat sightings reported to 311 had declined year over year for 15 consecutive months. The City has linked that improvement to its expanding trash-containerization efforts.

That makes sense.

Rats need the same basic things every pest needs: food, water and shelter.

For decades, New York put enormous quantities of food waste onto sidewalks in plastic garbage bags. Rats are extraordinarily good at taking advantage of readily available food.

Put more of that garbage into secure containers and you remove some of the food.

That’s not complicated pest-control science.

It’s good Integrated Pest Management.

In fact, Bell Environmental has been making this same recommendation to property managers for years: control garbage, eliminate food sources, reduce harborage, maintain landscaping, repair structural openings and monitor the property for rodent activity.

Our 2023 presentation to New York property managers specifically identified cans and containers as a key part of proactive rat control and emphasized removing food, water and shelter rather than simply relying on rodenticides.

So if better garbage practices are contributing to fewer reported rat sightings, we’re happy to see it.

But 311 Is Not a Rat Census

This distinction matters.

Nobody is counting every rat in New York City.

A 311 complaint is something a person reports. A decline in reported sightings is an important indicator, particularly when it continues month after month.

But it does not mean that New York City counted its rats and discovered that exactly 22% of them disappeared.

The City’s own rat-control program uses several different measurements.

NYC Health conducts inspections and looks for active rat signs, including fresh droppings, tracks, burrows, runways, gnaw marks and live rats. Inspectors also identify conditions that support rats, including poorly contained garbage, clutter and dense vegetation.

The Health Department also conducts rat indexing, inspecting properties throughout targeted neighborhoods because, as the City itself explains, rats generally don’t occupy one isolated property. They inhabit blocks and larger areas.

These are useful measurements.

So are 311 calls.

But none of them is a census.

They are indicators that help us understand whether conditions appear to be getting better or worse.

And right now, some important indicators appear to be moving in the right direction.

Removing the Buffet Doesn’t Eliminate the Diners

There is another reason to keep the improvement in perspective.

Containerizing garbage attacks one major part of the rodent equation: food availability.

That’s enormously important.

But rats also need shelter and water. They burrow. They occupy sewers and other infrastructure. They exploit landscaping, construction conditions, structural openings, alleys, basements and neighboring properties.

NYC Health recognizes this in its own inspection criteria. A property can have problems associated with active rats, garbage or conditions that provide harborage.

And rodent pressure isn’t evenly distributed across New York.

The City’s 2025 inspection data, for example, showed substantial differences in active rat signs among neighborhoods. In some heavily inspected areas, more than one in five inspected properties showed active rat signs.

That’s why a citywide improvement doesn’t necessarily tell a building owner what’s happening outside their loading dock, restaurant, garbage room or basement.

Pest control is ultimately local.

Sometimes extremely local.

The City’s Progress Actually Makes the Case for IPM

There is a larger lesson here that property managers and restaurant operators shouldn’t miss.

For years, people have tended to think about pest control as extermination:

See rat. Kill rat.

Modern pest management is more sophisticated.

Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, asks why the rats are there in the first place.

What are they eating?

Where are they drinking?

Where are they nesting?

How are they getting into the building?

What conditions are allowing the population to survive?

How do we monitor whether those conditions—and the rodent activity—are actually improving?

New York City’s experience with containerization provides a useful real-world demonstration of that principle.

Change the environment supporting the pest and you can change pest pressure.

That is encouraging.

What Should Property Managers and Restaurants Do?

Keep doing the fundamentals.

Control garbage. Use secure containers and keep refuse areas clean.

Remove food sources. Pay particular attention to restaurants, outdoor dining areas, loading docks, employee kitchens and food waste.

Reduce shelter and harborage. Keep landscaping maintained and eliminate clutter and protected nesting areas.

Pest-proof the building. Repair gaps, penetrations, damaged doors and other potential access points.

Monitor activity. A professional rodent program should help determine where activity exists and whether it is increasing or decreasing.

Look beyond your property line. Rats don’t understand leases, lot lines or management contracts. NYC Health specifically recognizes rodent control as a neighborhood problem.

And use a competent commercial pest-control company that practices Integrated Pest Management rather than simply reacting whenever somebody sees a rat.

Good News Is Still Good News

New York has spent decades fighting rats, often with mixed results.

So sustained declines in reported rat sightings deserve recognition.

Getting garbage off the streets and into secure containers is sensible sanitation policy, good public health practice and good pest management.

We hope the improvement continues.

But a reduction in 311 rat reports isn’t the same thing as eliminating New York’s rat population—and it certainly doesn’t mean an individual restaurant, office building, apartment property or commercial facility can relax its own rodent-control program.

Think of it this way:

The trend is encouraging. The underlying risk hasn’t disappeared.

So give New York City some credit.

Keep containerizing the garbage.

Keep taking away the food.

And maybe keep that bottle of champagne in the refrigerator a little longer.

Learn more about Bell Environmental’s mouse control services and commercial rat control services.

Watch this space for more.

Sources