Rats infest neighborhood, feast on community garden in Nyack
Village leaders said the rats are out in force this summer along Hudson Avenue, partly because of an apartment complex's trash problem and some of its vacant units that are creating a rat-friendly environment.
More Stories
Rats are taking over a city block in Nyack.
Village leaders said the rats are out in force this summer along Hudson Avenue, partly because of an apartment complex's trash problem and some of its vacant units that are creating a rat-friendly environment.
Elizabeth Turk showed News 12 video Friday of the rats she believes have been feasting on the Nyack Community Garden.
The Nyack Garden Club, which has a plot in the community garden, usually sends its produce to a local food pantry.
Not this summer.
The members say they had to tear up all their crops because the rats ruined everything.
"Everyone contributes to the donation for People to People," group member Nancy Gray said. "So now, there's nothing we can bring."
Village leaders believe the rats have been coming across a dried-up creek to the garden from the Nyack Plaza Apartments.
Village Administrator Andy Stewart told News 12 one contributing factor is that several of the complex's units that were boarded up following a fire in June have stayed untouched and might be attracting rats.
"They need more pest control action," Stewart said when reached by phone Friday afternoon. "That's our focus now for the village from a code enforcement perspective.
The village has also ordered the property manager to remedy several other sanitary issues, including a large dumpster that was used for debris from the fire but is now a haven for rats, other dumpsters on the premises and holes on the perimeter of the property that lead to rats nests.
The property manager was not immediately available for comment.
News 12 did speak with the property's newly hired superintendent.
The super said he is working with a pest control contractor, who has been setting rat traps around the complex, securing dumpsters and flooding the rat holes with powdered poison.
Village officials said they are hopeful about the complex's new super and will be regularly checking on his progress.
For a moment, Nancy Gray thought she salvaged some basil from the garden.
"It doesn't seem like --," she said before seeing bites out of the leaves. "Wait a minute."
She believes that the rats got to that basil, too, and had to throw it away.
