Overview
- D.C. Health has begun a focused effort in Adams Morgan that combines lethal bait, a tracking powder poison, and edible fertility-control bait for rats.
- The pilot carries a budget of about $130,000 and runs in three-week cycles with inspectors checking sites before the agency decides what to do next.
- Officials said the contraceptive bait is for rats that survive other methods and it curbs breeding only when animals eat it on a steady basis.
- The city is urging residents and businesses to keep trash sealed, and a council bill would replace open-top public cans with rodent-resistant bins to cut off food sources.
- Wildlife advocates question how reliable fertility control will be and warn that anticoagulant poisons can harm predators and pets that consume poisoned rats.