Huntington town and Suffolk County health officials said there has been a dramatic improvement in addressing the rodent problem in the downtown area over the past two weeks, since News 12 first reported the massive infestation.

"We've made tremendous progress in eliminating a significant number of those rats," Huntington Town Environmental Waste Management Director John Clark said.

The problem began four to five weeks ago, according to town officials, who stated that the source of the infestation was the vacant Gunderman Insurance building located at 175 W. Carver St.

On July 14, Suffolk County health inspectors searched the property and documented violations for numerous rodent burrows and mailed a notice of violation to the property owner, John Paci.

Since then, Clark said Paci worked closely with the town and hired private exterminators to get rid of the burrows and remove rats from the property.

"He did a fine job in stepping up the actions that we needed to eliminate the rats," Clark said.

This morning, News 12 was back in the area and saw no rodents running around. Several rat boxes were still out as part of the ongoing effort to curtail the outbreak.

People have noticed too.

“I’m here every day and I didn’t know that rats were scattering around at all, but I’m glad to hear that the town is taking care of it," Huntington resident Holly Janoska said. "I knew that they would.”

"I just walked down Carver Street now and it seems perfectly fine, so I’m hoping that it is better," Melville resident Jan Fine said.

"The littering has stopped, people are picking up trash and no more rats, no more mice and it's great," Hicksville resident Antonio Ciolfi said.

A man identifying himself as Paci drove by the building this morning and told News 12, "I'm doing everything I can to clean it up. I'm here every day and night." He declined an on-camera interview.

On July 18, three people from the Suffolk County Bureau of Public Health Protection conducted a large sweep of the downtown area with a focus on New York Avenue and portions of Main Street.

Staff looked at 56 businesses and found violations at 20 of them. Most were advised to provide better storage containers for their garbage and to increase extermination efforts.

Re-inspections were done on Aug. 1.

Suffolk health officials said county inspectors are back in the area this week to do another sweep to ensure compliance, officials confirmed to News 12.

Clark said the focus moving forward is on enforcing the town's garbage disposal and storage policies.

Businesses are required to securely hold their garbage in sealed containers during the day and overnight. They are permitted to put bags out on the sidewalks between 3 and 3:30 p.m. before all bags are collected by the town by 5 p.m.

Town officials said that the short window when garbage is out generally doesn't offer much of an opportunity for rodents, and added that the real issue is improper storage overnight when the rats and mice are active.

"Businesses have done a really solid job in stepping up with the type of containers they're using and getting rid of broken cans," Clark told News 12.

The town is adding resources to address the issue moving forward. This includes more inspectors and more people cleaning sidewalks and town-owned trash cans regularly, Clark said.

Town inspections will continue, with teams going through the area daily between 6 and 7 a.m. Violators will get a notice to comply and be given 24 hours to fix the issues before they get a summons, officials said.

Clark noted the town is willing to work with its businesses to address the issue collaboratively.

"They don't want to see a situation where we have litter on the streets, where we have garbage overflowing and where we have that rodent problem," Clark said.