A rodent abatement program using rat birth control in Bucktown and Wicker Park has shown promising early results and is set to expand, organizers said on Mar. 24.
The initiative aims to reduce the area’s rodent population without using harmful poisons by deploying a contraceptive product called Evolve in bait boxes along major commercial corridors. Special Service Area No. 33 partnered with Arizona-based company SenesTech for the effort, placing the product on North Avenue, Ashland Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue, and Division Street.
SSA No. 33 program manager Alice Howe said the project was launched due to persistent issues with rat burrows in neighborhood planters and concerns about public health risks associated with rodents. To measure effectiveness, SenesTech field scientist Amanda Stidham reported that from August to January there was an “88 percent reduction ‘in the density of tracks’ on the sensors.” Stidham said, “When we see a big reduction like that, it translates to fewer sightings and less movement in those shared spaces with the residents.”
Howe explained that traditional poisons were avoided because of safety concerns for children and pets: “Our tree pits and our planter beds were just not thriving in the way that they could have been,” she said. “We weren’t able to really keep up with the perennials, and we were spending a lot more money in landscaping because we constantly had to refill beds.” She also noted recent incidents elsewhere involving rodenticides harming wildlife as motivation for seeking alternatives.
SenesTech’s Evolve is labeled as a “minimum risk pesticide” by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meaning it poses “little or no risk to people or the environment, including non-target animals,” according to information from SenesTech’s website. Stidham described its mechanism: “It’s a contraceptive, it’s not a sterilant… It’s formulated with cottonseed oil which reduces fertility in male and female rats with repeated consumption.” The effect requires ongoing ingestion rather than producing immediate results.
SSA No. 33 plans continued monitoring as warmer weather may bring more rats back into neighborhood streets; however anecdotal reports of fewer rats support expanding coverage later this year throughout Wicker Park and Bucktown’s nearly 14-mile footprint. Howe said: “We don’t know exactly where that will be yet…and we’re only right now covering a portion of that.”
Other Chicago neighborhoods are piloting similar approaches; last year saw Lincoln Park launch its own fertility control trial through partnerships between city departments and local organizations such as Alderman Timmy Knudsen’s office, Chicago Bird Alliance, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Lincoln Park Conservancy. Knudsen indicated data from their pilot would be released later this spring.
