And in this episode of the Most DC Thing: the District was named as one of the most rat infested cities in the country.
A new study by apartment search service RentHop.com showed Washington, D.C. had the second most rat complaints per 100,000 people in 2017 at 725.68, beating out the former rat-capital of the world, New York City.
D.C. saw its most rat complaints in the month of September and least number of complaints in February.
But it was Chicago that took the overall crown this year, with the most number of overall complaints (50,963) and the most complaints per 100,000 residents (1,876.09). The number of complaints in Chicago increased 55 percent since 2014.
"The abundance of garbage and buildings in The Windy City makes it a great location for these rats to seek shelter and food for survival," according to RentHop, which has a large presence in the four cities. "The presence of these furry critters poses a threat to city dwellers due to the fact that they are capable of spreading diseases and cause allergic reactions to humans and animals."
However, the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation told The Chicago Tribune that the high level of complaints was not necessarily an indication of a greater rat infestation.
“Rodent complaints are not an accurate indicator of the rat population in an area,” Streets and Sanitation Spokeswoman Marjani Williams told The Tribune. “However, they do show that Chicagoans care about the health and safety of their communities,” saying the department is vigilant in encouraging to report rodent activity “so that our crews can quickly investigate and address every sighting.”
In addition, Williams said, the actual number of complaints was 42,670 when duplicate reports are taken into account.
