AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
There are certain things you expect from a place like New York City - good food, Times Square. Sure. But also big city pests like rats. A New York rat can even be a celebrity. Remember the pizza rat?
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")
STEPHEN COLBERT: The internet blew up over this video of a rat carrying a whole slice of pizza down the stairs of a subway station.
RASCOE: That's Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show," filmed in Manhattan, which is nowhere near Eagle, Idaho.
ADAM SCHROEDER: Rat apocalypse. It's a dramatic term, but I would just say that folks are very concerned.
COLIN NASH: Feels like a 1980s New York City issue.
JANE ROHLING: I live in Eagle, Idaho, ground zero for the rat race.
RASCOE: As the Idaho Statesman reports, Ada County, which includes the cities of Eagle and Boise, is struggling with rats.
SCHROEDER: They're catching 20 or 30 rats at their house, you know?
RASCOE: That's Adam Schroeder, director of Ada County Weed, Pest and Mosquito Abatement. He says that in the past, rats were a non-issue. They weren't even considered in local pest control laws. Got a problem with marmots, yellow-bellied gophers? No problem. But...
SCHROEDER: We're not equipped to deal with rat infestations.
RASCOE: Ada County is growing. That could be the issue. It could also be due to container shipping. Whatever the cause, Schroeder says the area is beset, both with pizza rat-type rats of the Norway variety - you know, the kind that look like Disney's "Ratatouille" - and another, more acrobatic kind called roof rats. Boise City Council President Colin Nash just wants them gone. As he said at a recent city council meeting...
NASH: I am concerned if we're distinguishing between normal rats or rats that practice ninjutsu.
RASCOE: Enter Eagle resident Jane Rohling.
ROHLING: Well, I just gave myself the title of rat lady.
RASCOE: Rohling is retired, but had a 45-year-long career in wildlife education.
ROHLING: So I'm a naturalist by profession.
RASCOE: Rohling never expected rats to be a problem in Eagle, but then you started seeing people post about them on the app Nextdoor.
ROHLING: Rats? We don't have any rats around here.
RASCOE: Rohling quickly got up to speed, helping people understand the do's and don'ts of at prevention. In fact, Rohling says rats can really harm the animals that are supposed to be there. So she doesn't feel too bad about extermination. But the rats are probably going to stick around.
ROHLING: We're never going to eradicate all of them, just like no other city is.
RASCOE: Residents may need to get creative. An influx of hawks, an army of cats? Rohling has another idea.
ROHLING: There's birth control for rats that I'm going to be promoting now.
RASCOE: Whatever it takes, residents of Ada County may need to learn to live with some rats in the neighborhood. But hey, at least it looks like they've hit the big leagues. Bigger the city, bigger the rats. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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