Rats, not again!

Tough street rats are “fighting” their human neighbors on several pest-infested blocks in the East Village, with locals saying the critters are popping up from garbage cans and staking claim to cars parked on the street.

The overrun blocks are part of an area that saw 300 complaints since January — a whopping 37.6% surge in rodent reports compared to this time last year. Citywide sightings dropped from 12,017 to 9,023 over the same stretch, 311 data shows.

The East Village area that saw 300 rodent-related complaints since January. TEEREXZ – stock.adobe.com

“Sometimes I’ll be fighting with them,” said longtime Second Avenue porter Steven Perez, adding the rodent population keeps “growing more and more” despite the citywide downturn.

“They’ll be in the garbage cans, they’ll pop up when I open the lids,” he said.

“I started seeing more of them recently … in the last two months,” said 23-year-old Halle, who lives near Cooper Square: “I usually leave my apartment around 5 a.m., and there’s a lot of trash on the side of the street, so they are always running back and forth.” 

“It’s a constant battle,” said fellow resident Kirk Marcoe, 55. “You have to look for signs of rats, and you have to mitigate it, fill holes, just stop them, stop giving them places to live.

“You have to deal with it every single day.”

Manhattan’s Community Board 3 — comprising the East Village, the Lower East Side, Two Bridges and swaths of Chinatown — reported 300 complaints since June — a staggering 37.6% increase in rat-related calls from the same time last year.

Jose Amigon, manager of Paul’s Da Burger Joint, attributes the ratty increase to patrons throwing food in the street. Georgett Roberts

But the sanitation department blames the spike on just three corridors for the surge.

The rat-tled streets included Second Avenue between East Seventh Street and St. Mark’s Place; East Fifth Street between Cooper Square and Second Avenue; and Broome Street between Ludlow and Orchard Streets – the latter of which reported a 400% increase compared to this time last year.

“This is not a district-wide increase in rat sightings, but rather, a sharp increase on three specific blocks,” DSNY rep Vince Gragnani said. “The increases you are seeing are driven by a few specific addresses, and … potentially reflect issues inside the individual buildings.”

But the sanitation department blames the spike on just three corridors for the surge. Georgett Roberts

A majority of the offending buildings, located mostly on East Fifth and Broome streets, have more than 10 units – which are exempt for now from DSNY requirements mandating the use of new anti-rat garbage bins. 

Some 70% of all trash in the city is required to be in sealed containers to cut off rats’ food supply, “and the remaining 30 percent is from high-density housing units, of which there are a high proportion in Manhattan,” Gragnani said.

“We are containerizing … trash in phases,” the rep said, “and by 2031, all trash will be in containers.”

Broome Street between Ludlow and Orchard Streets reported a 400% increase compared to this time last year. Georgett Roberts

Jose Amigon, manager of Paul’s Da Burger Joint, attributes the ratty increase to patrons throwing food in the street – and leaving a mess behind for varmints to munch on.

“With all the restaurants in the streets, there is a major rat ingestion in this area,” said East Village resident Manny, referring to outdoor dining. “You can’t drop a morsel on the ground.”

But some East Village residents say that, even when trash is put away properly, pickup is sometimes delayed – leaving a smorgasbord for critters to feed on.

“Sometimes [it’s] Sanitation: they come and pick up the garbage, sometimes they don’t,” Perez, the porter, said. “They’ll come the next day or maybe two days [later].”

More than 126 missed trash collection complaints were logged to 311 in the district since Jan. 1 to date this year, compared to 219 during the same period in 2025.

However, the sanitation department contends the days of lingering trash – when refuse went out at 4 p.m. and lingered until the following evening – are “long over” and pickup is completed before most people are awake.

Anyone who sees a violation of these rules — or who experiences a missed collection — should contact 311, the sanitation department said.