Whether or not Bostonians are seeking out rats this way, the public does notice them. Rat complaints made to the city’s 311 system for non-emergency service requests soared during the pandemic, the Globe has reported; last year, the city logged 3,949 reports of the rodents. In November, a Seaport rat boldly ran up a man’s leg. In January, a rat ended up in someone’s toilet in Somerville.
Boston has responded, the way many cities do, with brute force: poisons, dry ice, bait boxes, snap traps, and other methods. City Councilor Ed Flynn has called for the establishment of a pest control department or for the city to have its own rat czar. Additional support is a good idea, but it won’t change the fact that extermination measures are labor-intensive and often ineffective, and rat poisons can kill owls, eagles, and other raptors, nature’s exterminators.
There is an alternative to all this, and it involves a fundamental shift in how we think about — and relate to — our furry neighbors: Cohabitation.
This sounds like a call for mayhem, but hear me out. Bostonians are already living with the rats — on their terms. It’s time to think about what our terms are, and what a livable future for both species looks like.
Paris has made headlines for floating this very idea. The city has been studying cohabitation since 2021, including assessing the true health risks rats pose and how to counter the prejudices people harbor against them.
“What we’re doing now is obviously not working,” says Kaylee Byers, an assistant professor in the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University who has extensively studied the rat population in Vancouver. “Part of that is that our current approach has been ‘see a rat, kill a rat.’”
This method is inefficient, she says, because extermination rarely removes all of the rats from a population, and the reproduction rates of rats with access to food and water are so high that they’ll replace themselves in no time. Meanwhile, getting rid of one group of rats can just create prime real estate for another group to move in.
Marieke Rosenbaum, an assistant professor and research veterinarian at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, says many people have an exaggerated idea of the health dangers brought by rats. “They can carry and transmit diseases we can catch,” she acknowledges, “but the reality is that, at least in most North American cities, [transmission] doesn’t happen with high frequency.” However, some populations, such as the unhoused, can be at increased risk, Rosenbaum adds.
There’s no doubt that diseases from rats can be dangerous. New York City has seen a spike in cases of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease that can be passed from animals to humans and, when untreated, can potentially be fatal. (The bacteria that causes the disease can be found in the urine of infected rats, and passed to people when handling garbage, or through contact with contaminated water or soil.)
But Byers says the emotional toll of dealing with rats, especially in the home, can cause very real mental health effects as well. “They can cause stress and anxiety,” she says. “People that I’ve spoken to have mentioned helplessness and hopelessness.”
People often have these reactions because we associate rats with unsanitary conditions, and for good reasons.
“There’s a saying in the pest control industry that the best defense against a rat is a good trash can,” Rosenbaum says. Rats are “opportunists,” she explains, and because of how quickly humans in urban environments produce sumptuous, Michelin Star garbage, their populations directly track with ours.
Managing the rat population, experts say, will require cities to change. Properly disposing of waste will not only bring the number of rats down, it will also protect people from potentially dangerous contact with them. If there are fewer rats rooting around in our trash, then more people might be receptive to thinking of them less as pests, and more as urban wildlife, like squirrels.
For those still effusively anti-rat, it’s important to be realistic about what our end goals are. Rats are part of urban ecosystems.
“The ideal is to get them to a level where they’re not disturbing people, and causing any sort of emotional or physical or health-related risks,” Rosenbaum says, “but we’ll never be able to eradicate them.”
If rat numbers are manageable, then I suspect more people (like me) will find the occasional rat appearance amusing, and not terrifying. Maybe. That would be ideal, because they aren’t going anywhere.
“They’re really resilient. They can rebound really fast if you knock them down,” Rosenbaum says. “I think that they are going to out-survive us on this planet.”
Lauren Hunt is a freelance writer and graduate student based in Boston. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
BOSTON (WHDH) – Open Newbury Street is returning starting on Sunday, June 30.
Beginning on that date, Newbury Street will be open only to pedestrian traffic from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. for 10 straight Sundays, through September 1.
New this year, Open Newbury will return for two Sundays in December as a way to encourage holiday shopping in Back Bay.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
The Minnesota Timberwolves forced Game 7 against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets with a 45-point blowout in Game 6 on Thursday night. The Wolves bounced back after losing three games in a row, and the second round will see at least one Game 7. It could see as many as three. The New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks are both up 3-2 in their respective series against the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder, and they’ll try to close things out this weekend.
The Boston Celtics became the first team to punch their ticket to the conference finals in the 2024 NBA playoffs. The Celtics ousted the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night with a Game 5 win. The victory moved Boston to the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth time in the last eight years and the third year in a row. The Celtics will face either the Knicks or the Pacers in the next round, starting on Tuesday.
The postseason field started with 20 teams, and now we’re down to seven. The Warriors, Kings, Hawks and Bulls were ousted in the Play-In Tournament before the Pelicans, Suns, Clippers, Lakers, Heat, 76ers, Bucks and Magic were eliminated in the first round. And now the Cavs have been sent home in the second round.
Here’s a look at the upcoming schedule, as well as all the playoff scores. All games airing on ABC, ESPN and NBA TV are streaming on fubo (try for free).
Below is a look at the complete playoff bracket.
(All times Eastern)
Friday, May 17
Game 6: Pacers vs. Knicks, 8:30 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Saturday, May 18
Game 6: Mavericks vs. Thunder, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Sunday, May 19
Game 7*: Knicks vs. Pacers, 3:30 p.m., ABC/fubo
Game 7: Nuggets vs. Timberwolves, TBD
Monday, May 20
Game 7*: Thunder vs. Mavericks, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Tuesday, May 21
Game 1: Celtics vs. TBD, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Wednesday, May 22
Game 1: Western Conference finals, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Thursday, May 23
Game 2: Celtics vs. TBD, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Friday, May 24
Game 2: Western Conference finals, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Saturday, May 25
Game 3: TBD vs. Celtics, 8:30 p.m., ABC/fubo
Sunday, May 26
Game 3: Western Conference finals, 8 p.m., TNT
Monday, May 27
Game 4: TBD vs. Celtics, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Tuesday, May 28
Game 4: Western Conference finals, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Wednesday, May 29
Game 5*: Celtics vs. TBD, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Thursday, May 30
Game 5*: Western Conference finals, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Friday, May 31
Game 6*: TBD vs. Celtics, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Saturday, June 1
Game 6*: Western Conference finals, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Sunday, June 2
Game 7*: Celtics vs. TBD, 8 p.m., ESPN/fubo
Monday, June 3
Game 7*: Western Conference finals, 8:30 p.m., TNT
Celtics vs. Cavaliers
Game 1: Celtics 120, Cavaliers 95
Game 2: Cavaliers 118, Celtics 94
Game 3: Celtics 106, Cavaliers 93
Game 4: Celtics 109, Cavaliers 102
Game 5: Celtics 113, Cavaliers 98
(Boston wins series 4-1)
Knicks vs. Pacers
Game 1: Knicks 121, Pacers 117
Game 2: Knicks 130, Pacers 121
Game 3: Pacers 111, Knicks 106
Game 4: Pacers 121, Knicks 89
Game 5: Knicks 121, Pacers 91
Thunder vs. Mavericks
Game 1: Thunder 117, Mavericks 95
Game 2: Mavericks 119, Thunder 110
Game 3: Mavericks 105, Thunder 101
Game 4: Thunder 100, Mavericks 96
Game 5: Mavericks 104, Thunder 92
Nuggets vs. Timberwolves
Game 1: Timberwolves 106, Nuggets 99
Game 2: Timberwolves 106, Nuggets 80
Game 3: Nuggets 117, Timberwolves 90
Game 4: Nuggets 115, Timberwolves 107
Game 5: Nuggets 112, Timberwolves 97
Game 6: Timberwolves 115, Nuggets 70
Celtics vs. Heat
Game 1: Celtics 114, Heat 94
Game 2: Heat 111, Celtics 101
Game 3: Celtics 104, Heat 84
Game 4: Celtics 102, Heat 88
Game 5: Celtics 118, Heat 84
(Boston wins series 4-1)
Knicks vs. 76ers
Game 1: Knicks 111, 76ers 104
Game 2: Knicks 104, 76ers 101
Game 3: 76ers 125, Knicks 114
Game 4: Knicks 97, 76ers 92
Game 5: 76ers 112, Knicks 106 (OT)
Game 6: Knicks 118, 76ers 115
(Knicks win series 4-2)
Bucks vs. Pacers
Game 1: Bucks 109, Pacers 94
Game 2: Pacers 125, Bucks 108
Game 3: Pacers 121, Bucks 118 (OT)
Game 4: Pacers 126, Bucks 113
Game 5: Bucks 115, Pacers 92
Game 6: Pacers 120, Bucks 98
(Indiana wins series 4-2)
Cavaliers vs. Magic
Game 1: Cavaliers 97, Magic 83
Game 2: Cavaliers 96, Magic 86
Game 3: Magic 121, Cavaliers 83
Game 4: Magic 112, Cavaliers 89
Game 5: Cavaliers 104, Magic 103
Game 6: Magic 103, Cavaliers 96
Game 7: Cavaliers 106, Magic 94
(Cleveland wins series 4-3)
Thunder vs. Pelicans
Game 1: Thunder 94, Pelicans 92
Game 2: Thunder 124, Pelicans 92
Game 3: Thunder 106, Pelicans 85
Game 4: Thunder 97, Pelicans 89
(Oklahoma City wins series 4-0)
Nuggets vs. Lakers
Game 1: Nuggets 114, Lakers 103
Game 2: Nuggets 101, Lakers 99
Game 3: Nuggets 112, Lakers 105
Game 4: Lakers 119, Nuggets 108
Game 5: Nuggets 108, Lakers 106
(Denver wins series 4-1)
Timberwolves vs. Suns
Game 1: Timberwolves 120, Suns 95
Game 2: Timberwolves 105, Suns 93
Game 3: Timberwolves 126, Suns 109
Game 4: Timberwolves 122, Suns 116
(Minnesota wins series 4-0)
Clippers vs. Mavericks
Game 1: Clippers 109, Mavericks 97
Game 2: Mavericks 96, Clippers 93
Game 3: Mavericks 101, Clippers 90
Game 4: Clippers 116, Mavericks 111
Game 5: Mavericks 123, Clippers 93
Game 6: Mavericks 114, Clippers 101
(Dallas wins series 4-2)
DARTMOUTH – Students at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth got an amazing graduation gift from their commencement speaker Thursday. Billionaire Robert Hale surprised more than 1,100 graduates with $1,000 each.
“Each of you is getting $1,000 cash right now,” he said.
There was one instruction to go along with his gift. Hale said $500 is for the graduates to keep and $500 is for them to give to others. He invited them all to share in the joy of giving by gifting the money to a cause or person who needs it more than they do.
“These trying times have heightened the need for sharing, caring and giving,” he said. “Our community needs you and your generosity more than ever.”
Hale is the CEO of Quincy-based Granite Telecommunications, which he founded in 2002, and a co-owner of the Boston Celtics. Forbes estimates his net worth at $5.4 billion.
And Hale has done the same thing before. Last year, he gave $1,000 to all 2,523 graduates at UMass Boston. And in 2021, he gifted the same amount to 230 Quincy College graduates.
College graduates can certainly use the cash. It’s been less than a year since the COVID-era student loan payment pause ended. The Education Department said that roughly 40% of student loan borrowers who owed a payment when the pause ended in October 2023 failed to make that payment by mid-November.
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