Chicago see 28 percent more calls about rats

Illinois’ mild winter was good news for rats and bad news for Chicagoans who don’t like rodents.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Chicago has seen a 28 percent increase in the number of calls to the city’s 311 center asking for a crew to get rid of rats. Through the end of July, the city has logged almost 15,900 calls. That compares to a little more than 12,000 over the same period last year.

Steve Sullivan is an urban ecology expert for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and he says the mild winter probably gave the rat population a boost. He says rats don’t hibernate and have to forage for food year-round. That’s a lot easier to do when temperatures are mild and there’s not a lot of snow.