- The saying goes that Kansas City in August is hotter than two rats in a wool sock, but it turns out the rising temperatures from climate change are fueling explosive growth in the global rat population. The warmer weather potentially expands the time they have to breed, putting cities on the back foot in their fight against the vermin.
The latest chapter of New York’s centuries-long war on rats has the city throwing everything at the problem—from enforcing new garbage laws, to enlisting bands of vigilante rat hunters, to putting the rodents on birth control. But while the U.S.’s largest city may be gaining ground in the anti-rat battle, the global fight is getting much harder, thanks to problems of humans’ own making, new research suggests.
