Health · Rat fertility pilotAlbany Park rat program: Volunteers begin 40-box birth-control rolloutWritten November 5, 2026 at 11:25 PM UTCWatchTranscript0:07Volunteers are feeding rats birth control bait in Albany Park.0:11The locally funded pilot targets future litters, and residents may wait months for a0:16difference.0:17The test is whether these stations will actually leave the neighborhood with fewer0:21rats.0:22Albany Park is receiving the bait stations through the North River Commission.0:27The money comes from a service district covering Albany Park and Irving Park.0:32Volunteers are doing the work of placing the boxes and their food.0:37Chicago's rodent control crews have handled more than a hundred thousand service0:41requests a year in the past.0:43During peak season, the city has around twenty baiting crews.0:47This neighborhood effort operates separately, trying to slow the cycle that keeps0:52producing more rats.0:53Volunteers are placing forty bait boxes throughout the neighborhood.0:57Those stations define the scale of this first rollout.1:01The people putting them out are trying to get rats to eat food.1:05Intended to reduce their fertility.1:07Volunteer Jorge Benitez explains his preference simply.1:11He says he'd rather do this than put poison out for the rats.1:14He describes the intended process starts when a rat enters a station and eats the1:19bait.1:20Farah El Nahal, who leads the Albany Park effort, describes a plant-based sausage1:26containing cottonseed oil.1:28She says it reduces fertility in male and female rats.1:32The goal is fewer offspring after rats feed at the stations.1:36Albany Park is using a different bait from some other neighborhood programs, so1:41their experiences can't tell residents exactly what to expect here.1:45The local results will have to come from this deployment.1:48El Nahal says the bait won't harm rats, wildlife, or pets, but residents still don't1:54have an independent safety finding supporting that assurance.1:57For this pilot, her description of the food doesn't by itself guarantee that every2:03animal can eat it safely.2:04The North River Commission is paying for this effort through money designated for2:09neighborhood services.2:10Elnahall puts the rollout cost at about twelve thousand dollars.2:15Volunteer labor is part of how the program gets its boxes and bait into the2:20neighborhood.2:20That roughly twelve thousand dollar rollout draws on special service area project2:25money for Albany Park and Irving Park.2:28These service districts use localized property tax levies, so property owners in the2:33designated area help finance.2:35The funding district is Special Service Area60.2:38The Commission had already announced plans to deploy and monitor rat control2:42stations in selected parts of that district.2:45Earlier plans identified a Lawrence Avenue corridor between Central Park and2:50Spaulding Avenues, with a launch anticipated for late October.2:54The commission listed a community meeting for September twenty-ninth to discuss the2:59effort.3:00By November fifth, volunteers were placing boxes.3:04The earlier corridor proposal describes the planning stage.3:08The rollout is now moving into neighborhood deployment.3:11Other Chicago neighborhoods tried this approach first.3:14The Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce launched its program in2025 .3:20Lincoln Park followed in February of this year.3:23Those experiences helped encourage Albany Park to try birth control, but the3:28neighborhood still needs its own measurements.3:30The expected weight before a difference begins to appear is three to six months.3:35Residents should treat that as an estimate.3:38The commission has committed to monitoring the stations.3:41While Albany Park still has no published measurement showing a reduction in rats,3:46the commission hasn't explained how it will measure a change in rat activity or set3:51a date to release findings.3:53Whether sustained use of these forty stations produces fewer rats will require3:59measurements from Albany Park itself.Read the articleStory timelineHeyDex
