Philadelphia has appointed its first rat abatement manager — Adrian Jordan, a veteran of the Department of Public Health — to coordinate the city's rodent response across agencies. The program starts in Northeast Philadelphia: inspectors are going door to door in Oxford Circle, Castor Gardens and the surrounding neighborhoods, including properties where no one has complained. City Council passed a resolution on Oct. 8 calling the Northeast's rats a public-health and quality-of-life emergency, and the city plans a public dashboard tracking complaints and properties serviced. (Full story: Billy Penn / WHYY.)
Rest Easy runs rodent control programs in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and the Northeast is where we see the most yard and rowhome rat work in the city. Here's an honest read on the new program.
The scale of it
The Health Department gets roughly 4,000 suspected rat complaints a year, and about half are confirmed infestations. Officials say confirmed complaints haven't risen — but as the city itself acknowledges, complaint counts don't measure the rat population. They measure how many people called. In a neighborhood of rowhomes with shared walls, shared alleys and shared trash days, one complaint usually means a block.
What the city will do
Inspect. The door-to-door program is about finding conditions that feed and shelter rats — trash storage, overgrown lots, broken sewer laterals, gaps under sheds and porches — and citing the property owners responsible. That's useful. A single uncorrected property can keep an entire block infested, and until now nobody was coordinating the departments that each own a piece of the problem.
What the city won't do
Treat your property. An inspection tells you where the problem is; it doesn't remove the colony living under your back patio or in the alley wall. One Drexel biologist quoted in the story warned that hotspot-only efforts "buy you a little bit of time" before the problem returns — a whack-a-mole cycle — unless the harborage and food sources are dealt with everywhere rats are, not just where complaints are.
The practical consequence for a homeowner: if an inspector finds burrows on your property, the fix is on you. And if your neighbor gets cited, the rats don't leave — they move.
What rats in Northeast Philly actually look like
Norway rats. They live in the ground and in the voids of older construction: under concrete patios, in the fill behind retaining walls, in the crawlspace under a rowhome's back addition, in the alley between properties. Signs:
- Burrow holes 2–3 inches across, usually against a foundation, fence line or slab edge, with loose dirt fanned outside
- Greasy rub marks along walls and pipes where rats travel
- Droppings the size of a raisin, blunt-ended
- Gnawed trash cans, chewed pet food bags, damaged garden beds
Rats rarely travel more than 100 yards from the burrow, so if you're seeing them, the colony is close.
What a real rodent program does
- Finds every burrow and food source on the property — trash storage, pet food, bird feeders, compost, fruit trees, and the gaps rats use to get under structures.
- Places tamper-resistant exterior bait stations where the colony is active — along burrows, runways and the alley side — never loose bait.
- Rodent proofing — sealing the entry points under porches, around utility penetrations and along foundations so the next rats don't move in. On a rowhome block this is the step that makes the difference, because the colony next door is always looking for a new place.
Then follow-up visits, because rodent control is a process. A female rat can produce several litters a year; the colony refills faster than one treatment thins it.
If you're in the inspection zone
Don't wait for the knock. Walk your own property first — alley side, under the porch, along the fence — and look for the signs above. If you find burrows, call before the inspector does; a cited property is a property with a deadline. A phone quote is free. Call 888-927-9842 or request a rodent control quote online. We serve Oxford Circle, Castor Gardens, Mayfair, Bustleton, Rhawnhurst, Frankford, Tacony and all of Northeast Philadelphia, plus the rest of the city and the suburbs.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Philadelphia's rat abatement manager actually do?
- Coordinates the city departments that each handle part of the rat problem — Health, Streets, Licenses & Inspections, Parks and Water — and directs door-to-door inspections, starting in Northeast Philadelphia. The role is inspection and enforcement, not treatment of private property.
- Will the city exterminate rats on my property?
- No. Inspectors identify conditions that attract rats and can cite property owners. Treatment on private property is the owner's responsibility.
- Why does Northeast Philadelphia have so many rats?
- Dense rowhome blocks with shared alleys, older sewer infrastructure, and trash set out in bags rather than sealed containers give Norway rats food and harborage close together. Once a colony is established it spreads block to block.
- How do I know if I have rat burrows?
- Smooth holes 2–3 inches across, against a wall, slab or fence, with loose dirt outside the opening. Fresh burrows have clean edges; a hole you filled that reopens overnight is active.
- What happens if a neighbor gets cited but I don't?
- The rats don't leave — they relocate to the nearest food and shelter, which may be your yard. Rat problems on a block are solved block-wide or not at all.
- Is rat bait safe around pets and kids?
- Only when placed by a certified applicator in tamper-resistant stations as the product label requires. Loose bait is the leading cause of accidental poisoning of dogs.