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| A rat-hunting dog with a red LED collar sniffs around trash cans on Woodmont Avenue |
Rat-hunting dogs are hitting the streets of downtown Bethesda, the latest tactic to confront a persisting pest problem. A team of dogs with human handlers deploys to sniff out the trail of the dastardly fiends, so they can be rounded up. Areas of concentration include landscaping and trash receptacles. The handler will lift a public trash can so the dog can sniff underneath. Dogs wear LED collars.
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| The handler lifts the trash can, so the dog can search underneath |
The notable increase in rats and roaches scurrying about the streets and alleyways downtown after the 2020 pandemic lockdown seemed to reach a peak last summer. An increase in outdoor dining - including closed streets set up as "Streatery" dining areas, combined with decreased human activity during the nightime hours, seemed to attract more vermin. Other persisting factors in the surge include the collapse of the "nighttime economy," which has turned the downtown area into a dead zone after 9 or 10 PM at night, dog owners who don't pick up their animals' waste, and numerous excavations for construction projects.
30 comments:
They don’t need dogs, just use eyes. Hundreds of rats live by the dumpsters behind Spanish Diner and they run around in plain sight every night
Ah, another valid reason for ending all streeteries. Why not bait the rats with more commercial grade traps? More traps, more dead rodents problem solved. The dogs find rats, then what?
How does the presence of fewer drunk bar patrons on our streets have anything to do with the rat population?
8:08: A lot more quiet territory for them to run around in.
So now you're just grasping at straws to connect your grievance about the "nighttime economy" to the rat population. Maybe the rats are coming out to greet you when they see you taking pictures at night.
@JAC we ate outdoors on the streetery on Norfork on Friday night. It was a great night for friends and family to eat, drink, and socialize. I don't think anybody there would see a connection from their activity to the rat population. Where's the proof that streeteries increase the rat population? You're just making stuff up.
Are they going to have a rodent drive after they are rounded up? They can drive them to Takoma Park.
Learning
So you are arguing that having more folks wandering around downtown Bethesda at night, and likely dropping more food that attracts rats, will reduce the rat population? Perhaps the rats will be less noticeable at midnight, but there certainly will not be fewer rats living in the area.
12:18: Most people walking are not eating food. The lack of people on the streets simply gives the rats more free reign to forage, damage and reproduce.
10:02: It's just a fact that there are more rats and roaches seen out at night than there were before the County Council tanked nightlife, and before the pandemic.
10:02 - You don't read Robert's posts it seems. Robert Dyer mentioned an increase in trash from closed streets (outdoor dining areas from the Streetery) contributing to the increase in vermin as he said not me.
You actually are conflating a growing rat population with a reduced human population? You think that one or two hours of less populated streets each night allow rats to mate more freely. I didn’t know you are an expert in rat sexuality.
2:58: Yes, it's quite clear that people staying indoors during the lockdowns, and the continued lack of nightlife allow rats free run of the downtown. They can damage a lot more trash receptacles and gather a lot more food without having to dodge and hide all night.
Less human foot traffic actually decreases the rat population because rats have a harder time foraging for food. News articles were written about this during the height of the pandemic. Less food in trash cans means less food for rats. Also bold of you to assume rats would be afraid of more humans walking around at night. Have you ever been to NYC? Those rats drag around full slices of pizza in the middle of sidewalk foot traffic. They don’t care.
It stands to reason even for an equal amount of food, fewer interruptions of any sort would slow the rats down. Less interruption, more activity. What's so difficult about that?
Robert, when you use phrases like “it’s just a fact” when you have absolutely no facts, i.e., data, you lose whatever credibility as a so-called journalist. Do you have any data about the rat population in Bethesda? Do you know anything about rat behavior around humans? Of course you don’t. You’re just making up stuff as usual. And you just can’t drop the “nighttime economy” issue. You might want to explain that since it was so long ago.
6:14: People can see the rats and roaches at night. It's gaslighting to suggest it's not happened, or that it's not worse than it was last decade.
The "nighttime economy" in nutshell: The County Council declared in 2012 that Montgomery County was not hip enough, and that they were going to revitalize nightlife. Amid cringeworthy, worshipful local media coverage, they established a Nighttime Economy Task Force.
Upon implementation of the task force recommendations (of those successfully passed), nightspots began to close, reaching a grand total of 21 shuttered by 2023. There isn't even an Irish pub in town! Bethesda now goes to bed around 9 PM.
Instead of "creating" a nighttime economy, they ran the existing one into the ground.
Calling all Terriers! We have an emergency. Let's meet the hoard of rats at the Spanish Diner after dark- 9'ish. King Airedales move to the front.
I'd read that folks using their dogs to kill rats was a thing in NYC, but figured for sure that it would be against the rules here. Guess I'll need to make about a 15' lead for my son's beast.
I think maybe our 'leaders' know that eventually unchecked nighttime crime will more rapidly ruin Bethesda. They are hopeful that busy 'day' use will disrupt the crime cycle and keep from illuminating lax prosection and poor police morale.
Robert, please list the 21 shuttered nightspots since 2012 and the reason for their closure. Any facts, data, or testimony that show they closed because of the failed "nighttime economy" initiative would be appreciated. Please list any nightspot that has opened during the same time period.
I'm assuming you're including in the list of 21 nightspots, businesses that closed because of many other documented reasons like the owner retiring, the owner passing away, the pandemic, chain restaurants going out of business or pulling out of the area, labor shortages, increased costs and wages, poor management, etc., etc., etc.
Show me one demonstrable fact that any closure was the direct result of the failed "nighttime initiative." Can you attribute any business closing now to an initiative from over 10 years ago?
Facts matter, but you're just out for revenge.
Who would go to the Spanish Diner after this article.
Do these dogs kill the rats, do they drive them into cages? What do they do, scare them into hiding? I'd like to understand just how these dogs take care of this problem. Reeks of billable boondoggle with no metrics to me.
Robert, thank you for bringing this issue to your blog. We do have a big problem with rodents in downtown Bethesda. Bethesda Urban Partnership and Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services have taken action to mitigate the issue. For FY24, we have requested recycling and trach receptacles that are "rat proof".
Anyone saying there isn't a rat problem downtown doesn't spend much time there. They ubiquitous eat poison stations are in every downtown garage and other areas where they gather.
And the rats have increased over the years.
Presumably rat hunting dogs wouldn't be needed unless there's a problem.
What things did they try to create a nighttime economy that should have worked or that they claimed would work?
That service entrance behind Spanish Diner, way back, even before Jaleo et.al., has been very poorly cleaned and maintained. I remember disgusting water and slippery used cooking oil rivulets were the norm. Now that that street has been mostly secured and less traveled its apparently no better maintained, or possibly even worse.
At 1:11 Yes, they'll kill the rats by catching one in their mouth and giving it a back breaking shake for several seconds. As for it being a billable boondoggle, it never would have occurred to me to charge anybody any money. You think I could get somebody to pay?
I'm surprised nobody is sticking up for Ratatouille. It's not like he's running across your table or taking a seat at the bar.
So the dog gets maybe one rat while dozens scatter away? Isn't poison that they return to their nests the way to go? There's more to this, follow the (our) money.
@11:30am - Robert? Crickets?
Numbers aside, I'm quite the late night diner and occasional imbiber but haven't been local in quite a while, sure CV has been disastrous but IMHO pretty coincidental....Bethesda isn't anything like say most of NOVA between Rosslyn and East Falls Church. Bethesda is dead at night.
Why is the health dept not shutting down the restaurant? They or the landlord hire their trash removal service. Until dumpsters are rat proof they should remain closed!
If you walked into that service area behind SD, you'd never eat there.
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