The rats are outnumbering the humans at these cities, some are even your dreams tourist destinations. Photo / Getty Images
The rats are outnumbering the humans at these cities, some are even your dreams tourist destinations. Photo / Getty Images
Ratatouille was charming, but you surely wouldn’t want to hang out with rats on your vacation.
In a world where cities battle not just traffic and pollution but also the relentless invasion of rats, some urban centres are facing a full-scale rodent revolution.
There are a ton of reasons why cities are infested by rats, but food is one of the major drivers of it. Rats are known to stay in the same routes where they know they’ll get food, so garbage disposals, back of restaurants, and dirty streets are the best spots for them. Combined with bad waste management, cities can be a hub for rat colonies to thrive.
If you hate these pesky rodents as much as the other person, or worse, you have a phobia of rats, take note of these cities in your no-go travel list.
The beautiful town of Marseille, France, is infested by rats. Photo / 123rf
Marseille, France
First on the list is a city where the rat population outnumbers the city’s human population by about one-and-a-half to two times. Marseille authorities have estimated the rat infestation has worsened, with up to 1.2 million and 1.6 million rats pestering the city. To battle the infestation, the city is consulting with a ferret breeder to start chemical-free friendly pest control options.
Atlanta has been revered as one of the rattiest cities in the US, along with Chicago, LA, and New York. Rats multiply and create burrows very easily. What’s even scarier is they can fit into the holes as small as a quarter. Apart from the rat infestation, the city also has a cockroach infestation—a double whammy for people with a phobia of creepers.
Super rats are pestering the streets of Johannesburg.
Johannesburg, South Africa
Have you ever seen a city declare war against rats? Well Johannesburg did in 2014, but is losing the war until now. The city is infested with ‘super rats’, which are bigger and more unfriendly, as these rats do not fear people and are not shy to share homes with them.
Guangzhou, China
China popularly experienced a plague of two billion rats in 2007 caused by the worst flooding in the country. It was so bad and horrid, resembling a scene from a person with a phobia of rats nightmare where the city’s streets have turned black because of the rat population. But in 2007, entrepreneurs from China had a clever (albeit stomach-turning) way of getting rid of the rodents: shipping them to Guangzhou and selling rat meat.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin originally lured out rats to get rid of the plague. Photo / Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Hamelin, Germany
Hamelin needs to hire a modern rat Pied Piper because the rat infestation has gone out of control, again. The grim story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin started with the town hiring a pied piper to get rid of the plague of rats. Now, the rat infestation in the town has rats freely crawling the streets, cables, and fountains, all for tourists and locals to see.
Singapore
Unlike other cities in this list, Singapore has a great waste management disposal system, and is hailed as one of the cleanest countries in the world. So how did the city become a hub for rats? The city’s wet and hot weather is the answer. Rainfall draws out the rats from the burrows, exposing them to the streets. On the other hand, the warm weather enhances the rats’ metabolism, causing them to eat and breed more.
With good food and a bustling tourist city, rats surely do love the City of Lights; so much so that in 2023, the city’s mayor said Paris might just throw the white towel and learn how to live with rats. Paris serves as the home of about six million rats, and with the Summer Olympics on the way, it won’t be a shock if tourists and locals find a new furry neighbour.
New Yorkers co-habit with rats in the city, paying them no mind in streets, restaurants, and subway stations. Photo / Gary Hershorn / Getty Images
New York, USA
The concrete jungle where big dreams are made is surely a dream home for rats. Over the years, it has gotten a lot worse, as the rat population has now outnumbered the people (three times more). New Yorkers have learned how to live with the rats, turning a blind eye when rats parade in the streets or eat garbage next to their beloved pizza restaurants.
London, UK
The plague of rats has taken over homes at the Big Smoke, as rats continue to populate the streets and homes of London. It has gotten to the point that it’s estimated there are two rats for every human in London, making the rat population a whopping 18 million. This is mostly because London is overpopulated, with over nine million people crammed into the city where rats can easily find scraps of food and places to build and maintain their burrows.
Rats are fed by temple residents and often seen drinking milk from a dish in The Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke. Photo / Getty
Top of the list is a city that houses the ‘Temple of Rats’ and is the home of a huge rat colony where rats are not seen as pests but as reincarnations of gods. In Deshnoke, the Karni Mata Temple is a unique place where over 20,000 rats reside. Here, the rats are holy animals called ‘kabbas’, which are generously fed by devoted worshippers who consider them sacred.
