New York Named America’s Fourth-Rattiest City: Orkin

New York is the country’s fourth-rattiest city, according to pest control company Orkin.

The company said in a news release that it did more rodent treatments in the Big Apple in 2013 than any other city except for Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Orkin said that big cities, which make up each of the 20 areas named on the company's "top rattiest" list, create environments where small rodents can thrive.

“Each city on this list is a major urban area that provides ideal conditions for rats and mice to thrive,” said Ron Harrison, the technical services director for the company. “Commensal rodents depend on humans and their resources to survive, so unless residents and city officials take proactive steps to prevent rodents, infestations can get out of hand.”

The ranking comes as the city works to clamp down on rats and other pests.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Sunday that the city’s 311 hotline received 24,586 complaints about rats in 2013 and that the city’s health department isn’t managing its pest control problem effectively.

City auditors apparently found that the health department didn’t respond to rat complaints within a 10-day window in nearly a quarter of the time.

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“Without a vigilant and timely response by the city to citizen complaints, this problem will come back to bite us again and again,” Stringer said Sunday.

The health department has maintained that it has a handle on rat control in the city.

Below is Orkin's entire Top 20 list: