Author: Kaylee Byers, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences; Senior Scientist, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University

Rats are present in almost every city in the world, building their own rat settlements in parallel with human urban infrastructure. Cities are ideal habitats for rats because they offer everything a rat needs to survive: food, water and harbourage — a place to live. For brown rats, also known as Norway rats, any patch of soil can quickly become a home, and their omnivorous diets allow them to thrive on kitchen scraps, backyard gardens, fruit trees and even waste in our garbage bins and sewer systems. Several North American cities are considering the use of new contraceptive products to…