The crisis brewing in Sydney - and it has alarming public health consequences
Sydney, known for its iconic harbour, vibrant city and bustling food scene, has become inundated with rats.
The presence of rats in urban spaces has always plagued major cities around the world, but experts have seen the population skyrocket since the Covid pandemic.
The exact number of rats in Sydney is unknown and difficult to ascertain as a population count would quickly become outdated since a rat pregnancy only lasts three weeks and can produce more than a dozen pups in one litter.
However, a wave of viral videos showing rodents invading human spaces highlights the booming number of rats in the city.
In January, at least half a dozen rats were spotted scurrying around the kitchen of a popular late-night kebab eatery on Oxford Street in Sydney.
One month prior, Sydneysiders were left disgusted after footage captured giant rats 'brazenly' running wild at the food court in Westfield Parramatta, in Sydney's west.
Owner of Pesty Girls pest management Nathaly Haeren believes rats have become a problem 'all across Sydney'.
She said she has seen an uptake in requests for pest control, with calls surging to record levels since the Covid pandemic.
Ms Haeren explained the visible presence is due to the increase in construction sites across the city, which push the rats above ground.
Not only that, but ever-changing waste pick-up cycles mean bins are sitting outside for longer, giving rats an abundance of food on the street.
'It's the destruction they cause that blows my mind, that scares me, because I'm competing against them,' Ms Haeren told The Guardian.
'Rats need to keep gnawing to keep their teeth down. Their strength is like iron. And they can flatten to the size of your thumb - they've got hinged ribs … I need to be 10 steps ahead.'
The owner and operator of pest control business MOA Contract Shooting said he has never been in higher demand.
Mr Bankowski, who has run his business throughout NSW since 2015, has had to deal with rat outbreaks at shopping centres, warehouses, chicken farms, and food manufacturing sites.
'We've had sites where we've shot over 650 rats in four hours. The whole back of my HiLux was covered in rats - 15 cm deep,' Mr Bankowski said.
Mr Bankowski has found that the common pest management method of eliminating the source of the infestation and then laying down traps and bait is no longer sufficient.
He explained that about 20 per cent of a rat population is typically immune to poison, which means they survive, breed, and create a colony that is completely resistant.
New research has found that black rats in Australia have developed a genetic mutation that increases their resistance to one of the most widely used poisons.
The study, led by Edith Cowan University PhD student and environmental toxicologist Alicia Gorbould, identified the mutation in more than half of the black rats tested in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney between 2021 and 2024.
The mutation suggests the rats have developed resistance to second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, also known as SGARs.
Ms Gorbould also expressed fears of a public health crisis, warning that Australians may be using larger quantities of poison in an attempt to rid their homes of rats.
However, instead of working effectively, this could introduce more poison into the food chain and waterways.
'If you're using one of the baits that don't work … people will probably try to use more, and more, and more,' Ms Gorbould told Daily Mail Australia.
'And so it's feeding back into that cycle of increasing the rates of resistance in the population, increasing those non-targeted poisonings, and then we're ending up essentially with a public health issue because we've got these rats that can't be controlled.'
In 2019, Sydney experienced its first outbreak of leptospirosis—a bacterial disease spread through rodent urine.
The outbreak killed seven dogs and was linked to a surge in the rat population across Sydney, as the city faced 'unprecedented' levels of construction.
Leptospirosis can also be fatal to humans.
Rats are known as super-spreaders of human diseases and parasites, and have been directly linked to dozens of illnesses including Lyme disease, plague, and typhus—primarily through fleas.
Rat-borne diseases are also believed to have claimed more lives over the past 10 centuries than the total number of people killed in all wars combined.
According to a spokesperson for the City of Sydney, the greatest health and safety risks posed by rats are disease transmission, structural damage, and food contamination through their urine, hair, and faecal matter.
Council also received a surge in reports of rat sightings and complaints from residents living in social housing estates, where shared communal bins are used.
In just one year, council spends an estimated $240,000 on pest control, operating a 'risk-based rodent control program' alongside the conventional use of rat baits.
More than 100 staff and contractors oversee the program, which takes place on streets and in parks, and uses 40 electronic multi-catch traps in areas where rodent activity is highest.
Council also uses rat bait on a quarterly basis in a bid to prevent the rodents from becoming resistant to the poison.
Ms Gorbould said Australia has been using the same poison for more than 50 years and urged the country to adopt a more coordinated approach to rodent management.
Others have suggested reintroducing Australia's native bush rat into the city.
Conservation Biology Professor at the University of Sydney, Peter Banks, believes native rats could help combat invasive species such as the black rat and the brown or Norway rat.
Mr Banks, along with other academics, is currently running programs to reintroduce bush rats to areas around Sydney Harbour.
The aim is to block black rats from invading the area and replace them with bush rats, which do not carry harmful diseases.
Mr Banks added that bush rats do not smell, live in hidden burrows separate from humans, and do not feed on trash but rather on seeds, fruit, and nectar.
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