Tannersville Officials Hold Special Meeting on Rat Infestation

TANNERSVILLE – Frequent sightings of brown rats on the mountaintop have prompted swift action from the Village of Tannersville. At Tuesday’s emergency meeting, Village Clerk Robin Dumont announced the purchase of 36 rat traps and four pounds of poisonous bait for $250. Four residents attended in person, while Trustee Gil Adler joined by phone. Village Trustee Kody Leech was also present.

Over the past year, rat sightings have become more frequent across the Village. The New York State Department of Health has been unable to determine how the rodents are reaching the mountaintop. Mayor Lee McGunnigle said there are “about six theories,” including the possibility that rats are hitching rides in food delivery trucks traveling up from the lower Hudson Valley and New York City.

What surprised McGunnigle most, he said, was that reports were coming in from “all four distant corners of the Village, far away from food service establishments.” He admitted he initially thought rats would only be concentrated in the business district, near restaurants and their refuse.

Deputy Mayor George Kelly underscored that the problem is not new.

“The increased sightings on the mountain began about a year ago, with several residents bringing this issue to the Village Board’s former administration,” Kelly said, adding that as a trustee in that administration, he witnessed complaints that were never acted upon.

One husband-and-wife team told the current Board that they had raised their concerns with the former administration but were ignored. “We were promised a visit and inspection by former village officials, but that never materialized,” said the couple, who asked to remain anonymous. They said that in just the last four to six months, they had killed 17 rats on their property. They thanked the current administration for taking action at last.

The urgency stems not only from the nuisance but from the rats’ biology. Females mature within five to eight weeks, come into heat every four to five days unless pregnant, and can give birth to litters of 6–12 pups after a gestation period of just 21–23 days. Within 48 hours of giving birth, a female can become pregnant again. This cycle allows multiple litters per year, leading to exponential population growth.

Though the rats troubling Tannersville are brown rats, history remembers another species—the black rat, or “ship rat”—as a vector of the Black Death in the mid-1300s. That plague devastated Europe, Asia, and North Africa, killing an estimated 25–50 million people in Europe alone. The disease spread mainly through lice and fleas carried by black rats, which were more common in Europe’s ports and ships.

The crisis also brings to mind the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, popularized in Robert Browning’s 1842 poem. Browning wrote of a mysterious figure who lured the town’s rats away with music, and when unpaid, led the Village’s children to an unknown fate. Historical records suggest that in the 13th century, 130 children disappeared from Hamelin, Germany. The addition of rats to the story came later, in the 17th century.

Of course, as McGunnigle and the Board know, Tannersville cannot count on mythical solutions. On the mountaintop, traps and poison—not flutes and fables—will have to bring the rat population under control.

McGunnigle said the bait and traps should be here by Friday, and can be reordered if necessary, and dispersed to the public immediately.

McGunnigle added, “We’re hoping everyone is cooperative and doesn’t take a defensive stance, and aggressively tries to address this problem. It is clear we need to shine a light on this issue, educate our neighbors, and work together as a community to transform this into a non-health hazard.” 

The NewYork State Department of Health has a webpage dedicated to rat infestation and can be found online here: https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/pests/rats.htm