As a veteran of a mouse infestation I could only escape by moving apartments (condolences to the new tenants, but the landlord threatened me), I appreciated Aaron Timms’s bald acknowledgment of the futility of pest control efforts. I agree.
Exterminators came to my infested home, laid out poisoned peanut-butter traps, and charged me hundreds of dollars, only to conclude that the issue was too far gone, the result of connected buildings. Solving it would require monthly maintenance, bankrolled by yours truly. Three days later, I’d find a hole in my whole wheat bread or freshly disgorged pellets on a can of soup. I became paranoid, head spinning with conspiracy theories—the maddening effect of these diminutive, devious invaders eating away at my sanity as they ate my groceries. Was the exterminator intentionally making things worse? Luring more mice with condiments so I’d rely on him in perpetuity?
Mayor Eric Adams’s renewed effort, the so-called War on Rats, includes $877,000 in permanent funding for twelve new full-time staff, led by a “team of experts.” I’m all for creating jobs that aren’t “cop,” but—like any war—one must follow the money to understand its true motivations. Are rats truly unbeatable, or does Adams benefit from uniting us against a common enemy? In a more comprehensive analysis, it might be worth investigating the exterminator-industrial complex, to whom the contracts go. With the pest control industry projected to reach nearly a billion dollars in New York alone by 2025, I can’t help but think of how Timms described Adams as “a mayor who’s motivated purely by greed and self-interest.” Granted, he does seem to find intrinsic joy in piles of rat carcasses.
On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be foul play involving pest control companies (unlike the straw donations from HVAC, waste-hauling, construction, and real estate industries), but Adams’s rare display of passion for this particular issue raises questions.
Or is the impotent incumbent simply jockeying for reelection in the most selfless way he knows how? Perhaps he’s borrowing a strategy from George W. Bush: When approval ratings drop, find a scapegoat to bloodily antagonize. The city, like a mildly traumatized renter, may come to rely on him in perpetuity.