Rat whisperer offers tours of NYC's rodent hotspots: ‘They're sort of little monsters, but also sort of ... cute'

New York Post

7 hours ago

You could call it rata-tour-y.
New York City has always been at war with rats, from when they jumped from ship to shore in the 18th century to the city's anti-rat campaign today. Over many decades, the reviled brown rodent has burrowed deep into the Big Apple's collective psyche — they were even referenced in a recent episode of 'And Just Like That' where Carrie Bradshaw screams as rats scurry past in her backyard.
Thankfully, there has emerged a lone hero who braves Gotham's vermin plague to educate the masses and reduce the fright factor: Suzanne Reisman, leader of the Garbage & Rats in NYC walking tour.
Clad in fuzzy, faux rat ears like a bizarro Mouseketeer, the varmint savant takes guests through some of the city's most rat-infested sites while spilling retch-worthy facts on the critters' habits, à la a sanitation history lesson meets an urban wildlife safari.
9 'We really have to address the fact that our city has a lot of litter,' said Reisman. 'We throw trash bags on the street that are easy for rats to rip into. But if we really cut down on the access, that would help significantly.'
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'Rats love to go up to the poop!' she enthused to entranced rodent tourists during a recent tour as she discussed the delicacy of canine excrement.
'They'll kick through it, find the undigested kibble,' she explained to the curious crowd. 'I mean, dog poop is disgusting, but anyway, I do not ever pass by dog poop anymore without thinking, 'Oh, it's a rat snack.''
Since the tour opened in April, curious city visitors and locals alike have been clamoring to see the Big Apple's trash-loving mascot.
'There has been a lot of interest,' Reisman told The Post of the popular, frankly skin-crawling experience, which costs $40 per person.
'I sold out two tours and filled the waitlists during Jane's Walk,' she said of a recent excursion coinciding with the annual festival of community-led walking conversations. 'I wasn't sure that people would show up for a Sunday night tour in the rain, but they did!'
9 'Rats are just so linked to New York City, both in reality and in our lore,' said Reisman. 'They're sort of little monsters, but also sort of … cute.'
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9 'Rats are having a moment,' said tour-goer Caroline Murray.
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On the two-hour foray through lower Manhattan, guests learned how the Norway rat — a misnomer, as they hail from Asia, Reisman explained — hitched a ride here on Hessian ships in the late 1700s. They soon discovered a veritable island of garbage caused by nonexistent waste management policies that saw residents dump animal carcasses, feces and more onto streets and even into the East River.
'The rats get off the ship. They take a look around and think, 'Jackpot — we've made it,'' Reisman told rapt tour-takers and other revulsed guests. 'They are just beyond super happy, and they are as much of a New Yorker, a successful immigrant New Yorker, as any other group.'
From then on, rats and garbage would go hand in paw.
9 Trash is dumped in the East River in an undated historical photo.
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9 Visitors check out one of the rat-tastic stops on the tour.
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9 A woodchuck-sized rat was spotted in DeLury Square during the Garbage & Rats in NYC tour.
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Notably, after the 1968 sanitation workers' strike, NYC didn't return to using containers for garbage, which spawned countless opportunities for rats to multiply, Reisman explained.
Guests learn many scary factoids, like how rats have sex up to 20 times a day — hence why the scourge is so rampant — and visit the former site of Sportsmen's Hall on Water Street, where spectators would bet on ferocious fights of terrier versus rat hosted by Irish gang leader Kit Burns in the 1800s.
'It's just incredibly fun to talk about these stories, to share, to hear from other people what their experiences have also been,' gushed the guide, who left her 20-year career in nonprofit work to go ratting full time.
Then, of course, there are the rats themselves.
Lots and lots of rats, in fact — around 225,000 of the beasts are in the Big Apple, according to Reisman. When a dachshund-sized varmint scurried out of the bushes at one stop, guests oohed and aahed as bird-watchers might about a vibrant blue jay or a rare condor.
The grand finale, meanwhile, was Lower Manhattan's DeLury Square, named after John DeLury Sr. — who founded Local 831 of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association in 1956 — and seemingly more rodent-infested than a scene from the 2007 animated film 'Ratatouille.'
Why are people clamoring to see a creature that most would normally do anything to avoid?
9 A tour group can learn tantalyzing tidbits — including that Norway rats arrived in NYC in the 1700s.
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9 Rats can have sex up to 20 times per day.
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Brave rat tourist Caroline Murray, a current Boston resident and NYC native who was back visiting with her teenage sons, told The Post that she wanted to see something that felt 'more like the gritty New York' that she loves and not the tourist trap of Times Square.
'We saw live rats. We saw a pancake [squashed flat] rat. We saw a guy throwing up in a gutter,' Murray gushed of the sketchy scenes that unfolded in front of her. 'It was a very New York experience overall that my kids don't get to always see in the Massachusetts suburbs.'
She added that NYC rodents are well-known outside the city, claiming that the city's immortal Pizza Rat is a 'hero' in Boston.
'Rats are having a moment,' she declared.
Reisman's not the only tour guide noticing an uptick in interest. Fellow rodent watcher Kenny Bollwerk told The Post that he's had so many requests for rat tours that he 'can't physically go every night.'
The self-proclaimed 'Rat Daddy,' who films his rodent-spotting exploits for his TikTok series 'Rat Tok,' was forced to add more stops to the tour — most notably an 'area next to Wollman Rink (Central Park) where the trash is thrown away, offering sweeping views of the skyline on Billionaires' Row with rats feasting on the buffet below.'
9 A rat hole was spotted on the tour.
Stephen Yang
Reisman attributes others' fascination in part — and somewhat ironically — to the city-wide anti-rat offensive, spearheaded by Rat Czar Kathleen Corradi.
Along with lacing rat poison with contraceptives and rolling out rat-proof 'Empire Bins'' in Manhattan, the campaign has included a special program to educate the community on the garbage gobblers.
This includes a Rat Academy to teach 'safe and effective methods for rat prevention' like filling in inactive burrows, a Rat Walk that highlights the relationship between humans and rats, and a community service project where aspiring verminators showcase what they've learned on the rat-tlefield.
Perhaps it's no surprise that Riesman, busting with factoids, is a graduate of the academy and member of the 'Rat Pack,' a city-sanctioned 'elite squad of dedicated anti-rat activists.'
'It just seems like the city itself is doing so much more to engage people between,' said Reisman. 'So I think it's like there's also just more openness about this kind of thing and more discussion in general. And citizens in general are more interested.'
The most important lesson?
Cutting off the cheese thieves' food supply.
'We really have to address the fact that our city has a lot of litter,' she said. 'We throw trash bags on the street that are easy for rats to rip into. But if we really cut down on the access, that would help significantly.'
To wit, citywide rat calls to 311 are down overall each of the past six months compared to the same time last year, which coincides with the city's new requirements for closed-lid trash containers.
'I think New York is an amazing, vibrant city, and we all deserve the best, and we can work together to do better,' said Reisman, who nonetheless believes that rats and NYC are inextricably tied — for better or worse.
'Rats are just so linked to New York City, both in reality and in our lore,' she said. 'They're sort of little monsters, but also sort of … cute.'
Rat watchers can sign up for the Garbage & Rats in NYC walking tour on Tripadvisor.