Turning Rats Into Old Maids

摘要

No one knows exactly how many rodents reside in New York, but there may be as many rats as humans by some estimates. That'd be 32 million scurrying legs. Rats are remarkably fertile, sometimes birthing 12 pups per litter and as many as seven litters a year. That's why the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has started a pilot program to sterilize females. It's teaming with Flagstaff (Ariz.)-based SenesTech, a company that invented ContraPest, a product that, when consumed orally by rats, accelerates egg loss and can cause infertility in days.