Climate change could allow rats to have more babies. Enter rodent birth control

Researchers in Chicago are putting out contraceptive pellets in alleyways – but will enough rats eat them?

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Climate change – along with urbanization and density – is one of the reasons certain cities are seeing an uptick in the number of rats, many scientists found in peer-reviewed research. And there's a reason rats are considered vermin: they can spread illness to humans and their presence can also negatively affect mental health, issues that prompted research on controlling their population.

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In Chicago, there’s a public health alert about leptospirosis — a disease caused by leptospira bacteria that can live in floodwaters and is spread to humans if they come into contact with rat urine.

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Places like Chicago are seeing “an uptick in cases and somebody died of leptospirosis just this past fall,” she said. “It seems to be increasing, maybe partly due to climate change.” 

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Murray and her colleagues run the study in Chicago’s alleys, distributing peanut butter pellets laced with birth control.

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