In response to a very visible and persistent rat infestation at the Vallejo Ferry Terminal, a volunteer squad of canine rat hunters were recently deployed to bring the population under control. SFist was so inspired by this endearing story, we scribbled an illustration of the heroes in action.

As KGO reports, the rat problem became visible in mid-July. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, what is happening?’” Ryder Lopez, 19, who started working at Panama Bay Coffee a few weeks ago, told KGO. He said he saw up to 15 rats scurrying into bushes on his first day. “I’ve never seen that many before.”

The city responded with pesticide treatments and a “coordinated pest abatement initiative,” which included sanitation upgrades, street sweeping, and trapping. But locals also credit another effort — the arrival of SCRAT, short for Sacramento Canines’ Rat Annihilation Team.

Founded by Emily Iniguez, SCRAT uses trained terriers instead of poison. “We care a lot about birds of prey, and unfortunately rat poison is really detrimental to wildlife,” she told ABC7.

As Times Herald Online reports, SCRAT first visited the terminal on Friday, July 25. Iniguez and volunteer Austin Isgitt brought three terriers — Nora, Raven, and Creature — and caught 27 rats in 90 minutes. By Sunday night, their total reached 57.

As KTVU reports, the community was also happy to have the dogs' assistance. "We had a lot of people stopping to watch, who were cheering on the dogs, who were pretty excited about it," Iniguez told the station. "I think people definitely recognize it's a massive problem in that specific area."

Some of the rats, she added, “are pretty cozy up there,” suggesting the problem didn’t happen overnight.

Top image: Leanne Maxwell

A recent study confirmed what people have been noticing in San Francisco in recent years: We seem to have more rats than ever before. What is the city doing about it?

Yes, San Francisco has a rat problem, and to some extent we always have. Big cities tend to be prime breeding grounds for rodents, and the more unattended trash we leave around, the more rats have food to feed themselves.

Vox called out a recent study, published in Science Advances, that tracked rat complaints in 16 major cities, and San Francisco was second only to Washington DC in seeing the largest increase in complaints of any of the cities in recent years. Mind you, the study does not provide estimates of actual rat numbers in these cities — which is somewhat impossible to track. But it uses comparable metrics across the cities like numbers of 311 complaints, and inspection data.

And SF has been seeing a lot of complaints.

There have been occasional reports in recent years that San Francisco may be more of a rat breeding ground than ever before. ABC 7 reported in 2022 on a rat problem at a busy playground in San Francisco,  Helen Diller Civic Center Playground near City Hall. We learned of a "birdseed lady" who was causing a rat infestation in the Glen Park area that same year. And ABC 7 subsequently reported last fall on a seeming Bay Area-wide uptick in rat troubles, according to exterminators.

It should be noted that extermination company Orkin did an analysis of how ratty different cities were three years ago, and at that time San Francisco was in fifth place, behind Chicago, LA, New York, and DC.

The Chronicle reports this week that San Francisco has been taking steps to control the rat population, with the Recreation and Parks Department leading the charge on a few fronts. In Portsmouth Square, in Chinatown, a "rat birth control" substance is deployed in those bait boxes, rendering female rats infertile for up to three months. This has had a noticeable impact, the department says, given that rats can give birth seven times a year to litters of up to 12 baby rats.

In Dolores Park, raptor boxes have reportedly been installed, drawing birds that prey on vermin, and this has also apparently brought the rat population down there.

The SF Department of Public Health, of course, inspects the city's restaurants regularly, sometime shutting a restaurant down when there is an infestation, and working with the owners to clean up and secure trash so the rats don't return.

And the Department of Public Works handles the street rat problem, at least when it comes to open trash cans.

But does San Francisco need a "rat czar" like the one New York Mayor Eric Adams famously appointed in 2023? Adams is vocal about his hatred of rats, and he saw mitigating the rat problem in the city as a major quality-of-life issue, as well as an image issue.

The new report putting San Francisco two notches above New York City should probably put Mayor Daniel Lurie on alert.

The Chronicle notes that District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter has made street cleanups one of his first priorities, and he is reportedly spearheading an effort to rethink how trash cans are placed around the city, and how often they're emptied. And, no, we won't be getting those very expensive, high-design trash receptacles that DPW infamously spent upwards of $500,000 getting designed and prototyped. That line item was nixed a year ago, as the current budget crisis was setting in.

Photo: Joshua J. Cotton

It’s not a Happy Pride for the Castro’s Mollie Stone’s grocery store, as the SF Department of Health shut them down over a rodent infestation Thursday — but the store blames nearby construction and says they’ll reopen Friday afternoon.

Update: 2:38 pm - KRON4 has a Friday afternoon update that “When KRON4 visited the location on Friday, it was open again.” SFist phoned the store at 2:35 pm Friday, and the staff confirmed that they were indeed reopened.

Original story: 11:23 am - The SF Department of Public Health (DPH) smelled a rat, or rather found plenty of evidence of a rodent infestation during a Thursday inspection at the Castro Mollie Stone’s grocery store. And thus, the Chronicle reports that the Mollie Stone’s Castro location has been ordered closed temporarily, effective Thursday. Though Hoodline reports that the grocery store claims they will be open again by noon Friday.

“The permit to operate the above named food facility is hereby temporarily suspended, and the facility is ordered immediately closed,” the DPH said in their food inspection report. “This facility was found to have a rodent infestation.”

The above screenshot details the rodent issues (The emphasis added is ours). Inspectors saw rodent droppings on single-use containers in the deli and cheese sections, on the shelves for “bread, cookies, marshmallows, chips, [and] diapers,” the loading dock, warehouse floors, prep area, and walk-in refrigerator floors, and — yikes! —  beneath the weighing scales for cold cuts.

Inspectors also observed evidence of gnawing on packages of bread, chips, cookies, and tortillas. Additionally, they saw “evidence of nesting at the shelves for bread, condiments, and cookies/cheese.”

The store gave a statement to Hoodline.

"As a local, family-owned and operated grocer, we have been extraordinarily proud of our record of cleanliness, health, and safety in all of our stores," Mollie Stone's CEO Mike Stone told that outlet. "A recent street construction project near our store in the Castro generated an increase in pest activity."

"Working with the city and our pest experts, we closed the store briefly to fully address the issue and have rectified it," he added. "The health department has re-inspected the store and we will be open for business by noon today."

There were other more minor issues too. Grab-and-go deli items like fried chicken, rotisserie chicken, and ribs were found to be below the required 135-degree threshold, and there was no hand sanitizer or potable water in the butcher area.

In the words of the DPH, this Mollie Stone’s location has 15 days to ask for a hearing "to show cause why the permit suspension is not warranted."

It’s unclear if that affects their timeline to reopen Friday afternoon. We’ll keep an eye on that and see if it reopens.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Related: Glen Park Rat Infestations Being Pinned on ‘Birdseed Lady’ Dropping Huge Piles of the Stuff On Sidewalks [SFist]

Image: Steven Bracco, Hoodline

Image: rickyratcomix via Instagram

One woman allegedly dropping “15-30 pounds” of birdseed at a time has been at it for years, according to Glen Park neighbors and businesses, who say she’s single-handedly causing a rat infestation that’s roiling the neighborhood.

When Glen Park’s Canyon Market was ordered closed by the Health Department over a rat infestation on September 28 (it reopened hours later, and remains open), the shop’s owner Janet Tarlov was very clear in an interview with the SF Standard that there was one specific culprit behind the whole rat problem. She said a woman had been dumping enormous piles of birdseed on neighborhood sidewalks since February 2020, and Tarlov herself had complained to the Health Department about this repeatedly, for years, to no avail.

“I complain 100 times and nothing happens and then someone complains once and the store gets shut down,” she told the SF Standard.

And the size of the birdseed piles is staggering. These are not your casual Mary Poppins “Feed the Birds” outings. Tarlov tells KGO that she’s been cleaning up "15-30 pounds a time” of this birdseed, “multiple times a day," now for years. And these gigantic piles delight and attract pigeons, but also attract hordes and hordes of rats.

"When I told her no you can't do that, that's going to attract rodents, she spit on me," Tarlov tells KGO.

KGO published their story Wednesday, and said neighbors had seen the birdseed lady dumping giant sacks of the birdseed on sidewalks as recently as “two days ago.” The Chronicle concludes this is definitely all being done by one single birdseed lady after they exhaustively conducted “more than a dozen interviews with residents, business owners and city officials.”

Moreover, the Department of Public Health now acknowledges they’ve visited this woman’s home and found violations described as “unsanitary conditions, rodent infestation and refuse accumulation.”

The Chron also contacted the owner of a local Cole Hardware, who didn't realize his shop had been playing a role in all this. “We have sold (her) LOTS of birdseed over the years,” shop owner Rick Karp told the Chronicle. “I’m guessing she’ll be taking her birdseed business to another hardware business.” He insisted that once he learned what birdseed lady was doing, he “immediately canceled” an “outstanding delivery.”

And we will remind you that local law says it is illegal “to feed or offer food to any bird or wild animal in or on any sidewalk, street or highway of the City and County of San Francisco.”

This is likely a mental health issue, and KGO got a statement from the Health Department saying "The person has been and is currently connected to health services. We continue to do outreach to offer support and engage the person on additional health services."

And a spokesperson for the City Attorney's office tells KGO that birdseed lady has been sent a "cease and desist" letter demanding she cut this out. And it’s sad that this has gone on so long, causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage at Canyon Market and other neighborhood businesses, even though shopkeepers and neighbors have been ratting out birdseed lady for years.

Related: San Francisco Pop-Up Cafe Infested With Rats... On Purpose [SFist]

Image: @mertguller via Unsplash

For two days in July, visitors to one of San Francisco's most notorious tourist areas will have a thrilling new anecdote to share with the folks back at home: Out there, in craaaazy San Francisco, they have an actual rat cafe.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, Fisherman's Wharf's San Francisco Dungeon tourist whatever you want to call it thingamajig will on July 1 and 8 be home to a pop-up "Rat Cafe."

According to Dungeon spokesperson Matthew Clarkson, the rats will be there to provide a “frighteningly funny encounter." “Drinking coffee while a rat is on the loose? That’s not for the faint of heart.”

The cafe is in collaboration with Rattie Ratz, a Bay Area nonprofit that seeks to "improve the lives of domestic pet rats and their guardians by promoting value and respect for all animal life" to "promote domestic pet rats as valuable companions." So Clarkson's is perhaps not the ideal attitude to demonstrate for a rat adoption event, but I get it — he's got tickets to sell. And the tickets to the pop-up event aren't cheap: $49.99, to be exact, which allows you access to the Dungeon's various attractions, "coffee or tea plus pastry," and "15 minutes of rodent interaction."

Hey, I have an idea! Instead of waiting until July and dropping a Grant, how about you just check out Rattie Ratz' adoptable rats here (San Francisco Animal Care & Control also shows off their adoptable rodents here)? Then you can use the SF Department of Public Health's restaurant score page to find a coffee shop near you that's been dinged for rodent violations.

You'll save, like, 45 bucks, you might get a cool little pal, and you won't have to go to the hellmouth that is Wharf! You're welcome.

Related: An 'Escape Alcatraz' Ride Just Opened At Fisherman's Wharf

Substitute teacher Veronica Luther posted the video above to Facebook Monday showing a rat running through a classroom she was assigned to at John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento. Her video has gotten almost 5,000 views and she claims that the school district was nonchalant about whether they would be able to sanitize the classroom after the incident.

The rat can be seen in the video sitting on desks, scurrying across the room, and running up a wall.

Sacramento City Unified School District Spokesman Alex Barrios denies that, telling KCRA that the room was in fact sanitized, traps were set, and parents were notified. But, he says, "We cannot put rat poisons all over campus because that poses a threat to our students. We also cannot have rats dying on the campus because they ate the poison."

He also says he couldn't guarantee that Luther would never see another rat, which she demanded. "This school is in the pocket area. This time of year when there’s a lot of rain and their habitat has been destroyed, they’re running all over the pocket area," Barrios tells KCRA. "We just can’t make a commitment to a guarantee we can’t fulfill."

It was way back in 2012 when news surfaced of hapless missives from BART staffers complaining that the 24th Street Station was overrun with rats. More than four years later, you'll be completely, utterly floored to learn that the station is still suffering an occupation by rodents who are now bold enough to ride the escalator.

"RAT PROBLEMS MAJOR RAT PROBLEMS," wrote a BART employee in a 24th Street Station inspection report from June 12, 2012. June 25 brought news that a staffer was "Greeted this morning by the residential rat. Then a few early morning passengers (older females) were startled (she says it nearly gave her a heart attack) by two (2) rats (not mice). Rats running up down the stairs playing in the plaza (her words)." The following day's message was even more plaintive, as "RATS ARE STILL TAKING OVER THIS STATION."

When reported on back in 2012, longstanding BART spokesperson Jim Allison said that exterminators had been called to deal with the rat situation, exterminators that were evaded by this escalator-riding rat in 2013, or the rats that took over the 16th and Mission descent into BART in 2015.

Or this rat, who recently chose to take the escalator (note to BART: when your elevators are so pee-ridden that even rats disdain them, it's time to get serious about managing those urine issues) was caught on video by YouTube user boxedbunny, as CBS 5 reports.

Say what you will about rats, but this one is clearly smarter than the one caught on tape in 2013, endlessly cycling on another of BART's moving staircases.

Does that mean they they are...learning? Yeah, probably. Give these BART rats four more years, and they'll be writing the blog posts about BART, as I scramble to pull myself out of whatever pit I've been consigned to.

Previously: 16th And Mission BART Plaza 'Overrun' With Rats

The 16th and Mission BART Plaza is known around the Bay Area for many reasons — its central location and proximity to Dolores Park, that it plays host to a weekly poetry slam, and that many in the surrounding neighborhood treat it as a shared community space. Now there is one more item to add to the plaza's list of attractions: Rats.

At least according to one tipster, who sent in the above photo and the accompanying explanation that the place is "overrun."

"Haven't seen any reports on this yet," writes the concerned citizen. "But these little f***ers are all over the place at night."

The above photo depicts at least eight different rats all clustered around one tree. Although not confirmed, the scene in question appears to be located at the Northeastern 16th Street BART Plaza.

The BART Plaza, which was redone in 2006, has over the years been the focus of much neighborhood consternation, and in early 2014 became the target of a developer-backed neighborhood group by the name of "Clean Up The Plaza" which hoped to rid the plaza of its less-than-sightly elements.

If current Yelp reviews are any indication (yes, there are Yelp reviews for BART stations), then Clean Up The Plaza was not all that successful.

As far as the rats are concerned, is this a new problem, really? Well, yes and no. Every urban center is going to have an active rat population, and San Francisco is no different. That being said, ABC 7 notes that rat populations in SF have been booming along with construction work, which tends to disrupt their underground haunts. So new problem or not, we may just have to get used to it.

All previous coverage of rats on SFist.

Between C.W. Nevius and mustache twins Matier & Ross, the Chronicle has been ALL OVER the problems with Dolores Park and its massive weekend hoedowns lately. You'd think they hadn't noticed the fact that the park has been a) a huge sloppy party every sunny day since about 2006, and b) greatly overcrowded on the southern end of the park for the last year after the northern (hipster) half closed for renovations. Not to say that vandals and the growing trash problem shouldn't be dealt with, but suddenly this is all huge news? Anyway, a new update from M&R details how overflowing trash bins have become very popular with the local rat population, and there seem to be more rats rooting around than ever in the park.

Part of this is attributable to the fact that an entire half of the park where some rats were likely burrowing and nesting has been under construction and inhospitable for a full year, forcing their rodent ranks into the southern half with the rest of us.

But Rec & Parks maintenance staff have taken to using a specific procedure with regard to the trash bins — before trying to swap out the trash liner "they lay the bin on its side so the rats can escape."

And this has been a boon to the local hawk and owl population, says park supervisor Michelle Pallavicini. "We have a game with one of the hawks in the morning. He sits atop the swing play structure and waits for the 'rat dump.’ It’s a nice breakfast every day.”

So, yes, we live in a city full of rats, and a lot of them have found out there are many tasty leftovers in Dolores Park. Can we please stop sensationalizing this so that the residents of Walnut Creek and Danville who are casually reading Matier & Ross with their daily coffee can stop imagining the broken-glass-filled, rodent-, guinea pig-, lice-infested hellscape that San Francisco 20- and 30-somethings party in every weekend?

Previously: Dolores Park's Massive Trash Problem, By The Numbers
Dolores Park Vandalism Gives Nevius New Reason To Call For More Cops Busting Drinkers In Dolores Park

A transient San Francisco woman, nicknamed "Rat Girl" by Animal Care & Control due to her fondness for the rodents, is accused of breeding a small horde of rats and releasing them in local parks.

According to Animal Care & Control, the 43-year-old woman, also known as "Erica J.," used to breed rats in her room in an SRO on Minna Street, where she lived in 2011. Her colony eventually numbered over a thousand before the Public Health Department had to be called in to exterminate and Animal Care & Control actually started to become concerned for Erica's mental health.

In the intervening three years, Erica has been in and out of housing and living on the streets. At one point she had rats living with her on a cart underneath the Japantown pedestrian bridge. Most recently, Erica has been living in the mini-park at Golden Gate Avenue and Steiner Street, where she would feed her rodent friends dog food out of a bowl. When she was reported to Animal Care and Control, the responding officer found that the eight or so rodents she had with her had taken up residence of their own in the park.

"The officer that responded noted that they had been there for some time. They had actually sort of dug a maze and had areas to tunnel and burrow," Animal Care & Control Captain Denise Bongiovanni told KTVU. "We collected seven, unfortunately I believe one of them was really sick and died in transport. We impounded the rest."

Surprisingly, some of Erica's brood have even been adopted by the AC&C, but Bongiovanni says Erica can get very attached to them and has been known to hide them if she believes they'll be taken from her. Although she has been reported by everyone from her social worker to landlords to local residents, Erica is apparently hard to track down and the compassionate folks at Animal Control are reluctant to have her prosecuted under the municipal code, hoping instead that she will find the mental health treatment she needs.

KTVU has more:

Previously: 'Waterfall Full Of Rats' Plague SoMa, Your Dreams
Central Subway Rat Army Now Invading North Beach
All rat coverage on SFist

The army of rats that plagued work sites along the $1.578 billion Central Subway route in SoMa has apparently grown in strength as construction moves into North Beach. Residents in the neighborhood, many of them already disgusted with the idea of a subway coming to their quaint tourist district in the first place, now have a new reason to be appalled by the construction.

The Chronicle has dispatches from the front lines of the rodent war near Washington Square Park:

"'Teeming' is the word that came to my mind," said Richard Levine, who has lived about two blocks from the park for about 35 years. "They were small rats, in groups of two, three, four, visible and running under and around the bushes on the border of the park on the Union Street side."

What's more, they've apparently formed large roving forces, like a real army and everything. 10-year North Beach resident John Murnin tells the Chronicle he even witnessed, "a pack of 25 or 30, just roaming around together, like in platoon formation."

"It was like a sci-fi movie," Murnin said. "I've never seen anything like it. Tourists were running out of the park, screaming."

Like the rat army's SoMa battalion, subterranean construction is blamed for upsetting the unseen forces lurking just below the surface — particularly the contentious plan to demolish the Pagoda Theater to make way for the subway's tunnel boring machines, which North Beach and Telegraph Hill's notoriously picky neighbors vehemently opposed.

Although rodents have been spotted around Washington Square Park before, the new generation of rats is apparently bolder and lazier than the rats that used to be there:

"There have always been rats, at least occasionally in the park," Levine said. "I have a dog that likes to 'tree' them by chasing them and forcing them to climb the trees. But these rats are unperturbed. They seemed to be less concerned about being seen or banged into than rats generally are. They weren't scurrying. They were just hanging out."

The SFMTA, for their part, says they launched defensive action in the form of a rodent abatement program when construction began and received no complaints at the time. They also claim it is unusual that a sleeping mass of rats would be stirred this late in the construction process. The Department of Health, on the other hand, says they've had two whole complaints about the rodents and have sent in a fixer in the form of a pest control contractor. Levine, who seems to be the most outspoken opponent of ratrification, did mention that park gardeners have been doing "a terrific job" in cleaning out rat nests, so it seems his complaint lies mostly with the subway.

Previously: Central Subway Construction Stirs Subterranean Rat Army
Some Perspective On SF's Impending Ratpocalypse From An Urban Rodentologist
[Chron]

Last week came word that construction of the far-off Central Subway project may be displacing an urban rat army. But before freaking out completely (and just slightly after reading the Wikipedia entry on rat kings), we decided to follow up with someone beyond the Chron's one-man civilian witness. We reached out to Dr. Robert M. Corrigan, an Urban Rodentologist from RMC Pest Management Consulting, for answers to our burning rat-related questions. Here's what we learned.

On SF's rats in general: "There are two species of urban rats that live in San Francisco; 1) the Norway rat (or brown rat); and 2) The roof rat (or black rat). If construction impacts the rats below ground, it is usually the ground dwelling Norway rat (weight about 10-16 ounces; length about 16 inches including the tail). The roof rat weighs about 8-12 ounces and is about the same length as the larger Norway rat because its tail is long. This rat, if present in a building, is usually in the upper stories. If the building is taken down, they will disperse. They also live in tall palm trees, thick bushes along the fences, etc. If major construction tears down bushy vacant lots, etc., this rat can be displaced)."

The good news: "There are no 'super rats' from deep deep below the city; nor any super rats emerging as a result of climate change (at least not in this early stage in the game)."

The bad news: There are rats that live in palm trees (!), and someone (perhaps a rat insider?) just spent $450,000 to put thirty-odd palms along the new Bay Bridge span. Hello rat condos with a view.

On the effects of construction on rat populations: "The thought of dark tunnels below are cities conjures up images of millions of rats which will 'go running' all over the streets and into everyone's homes and businesses. The reality is there may be cases of some jackhammers, tunnel boring machines (TBMs), explosions etc, that will displace some rats in some blocks ; and these rats will scatter to wherever they can feel safe again. But the rats have to already exist in those areas prior to the beginning of any construction for them to be 'disrupted', i.e., construction alone does not cause rats. When populations of rats naturally increase but coincide with the onset of large scale construction projects, the construction projects are always, always, blamed for 'causing rats.' The public has an image of thousands of rats living in large mega-colonies way down below the city and being scared up to the surface."

The good news: So, large mega-colonies of rats running their own complex societies deep below the streets don't exist? Excellent.

The bad news: We're just not sure we can believe that.

On what we don't see: "Typically, prior to the beginning of any construction, city rats are already thriving at the street level in those parts of a city where sanitation is poor; in peoples backyards, under their stoops, beneath a dog house in the yard, in the building's basement walls, in poorly maintained parks (e.g., overflowing litter baskets); beneath the everyday sidewalk, in old sewer lines of the city, along the wharf areas in the rip-rap; in burrows hidden in the grass nearby the ordinary dumpster behind the fast food restaurant, etc. All these rat populations fluctuate up and down depending upon how much human food waste and harborage we allow the rats in these areas. But because rats are most active at night, when most humans are indoors and/or sleeping, they aren't aware of the low levels of rats living very close by."

The good news: Humans are usually asleep when the majority of rats come out to play, and so anecdotal evidence of rat armies, while exciting for humble news organizations such as ourselves, are probably not representative of the full situation.

The bad news: Rats are already freaking everywhere. Everywhere!

Previously: Central Subway Construction Stirs Subterranean Rat Army