NYC vermin complaints surge as COVID-19 restrictions ease

They’re getting ratted out again!

Complaints about rodents in the Big Apple have surged to their highest level in at least a decade as life slowly returns to normal with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

The number of vermin calls to the city’s 311 hot line soared in March— when lockdowns were implemented and restaurants closed indoor dining.

There were 2,906 complaints alone last month — a jump of 80 percent from the 1,611 calls during the same period the previous year, according to data from the city’s non-emergency hot line.

In March 2019, a year before the pandemic even started, there were 2,395 complaints made that month, Bloomberg News first reported.

The latest monthly figures were the highest since at least 2010, data shows.

Experts say the rodents are ready to feast after the pandemic brought a year of relative food scarcity for them.

“Rodents do not function well when they don’t have food,” said Jim McHale Jr. of JP McHale Pest Management to The Post on Sunday.

“They actually will cannibalize each other. They will run to other areas.”

McHale said the pandemic caused a “defection from the traditional feeding sources” for the rodents.

“That’s why sightings have increased, because they went to parks, they went to residential garbages. You know, they had to sort of make a paradigm shift to feed themselves,” he said.

The pandemic gave them free rein to explore other businesses that were no longer bustling — such as hotels and commercial offices, experts said.

“Because things were shut down and capacity was at an all-time low, the vibrations and just general activity are down, and that is a signal to rodents that ‘Hey, this is a good place to hang out.’ They don’t like it when people are around,” McHale said.

Rats and mice accounted for the majority of the vermin complaints last month, according to data from the city’s non-emergency hot line.

Brooklyn led the city in terms of boroughs with the highest number of complaints, followed by Manhattan and Queens, the data shows.

McHale said he expects the rats to return to their old stomping grounds this summer as dining and other businesses pick up.

“Unfortunately, we’re still monitoring it, and we don’t know exactly what’s next, but there’s definitely a new normal … now that they’ve had this pandemic and they definitely have adjusted their habits,” he said.

Benjamin Hottel of the pest-control company Orkin said he believes that businesses will be scrambling to get these unwanted guests under control.  

“There will be a higher pressure for the restaurants with rodents as their businesses increase,” he told Bloomberg News.

The city Department of Health said in a statement that it provides assistance to building owners and managers in dealing with rodents.

“Rodents are a quality-of-life issue, and the NYC Health Department works with communities to help them mitigate rodent issues,” a spokesman said Sunday.