This comes from a tipster who passes on an item from the ongoing debate on the Boerum Hill Yahoo group about rats. "They're horrified by them, and, unfortunately, I fear this post is totally serious":
If we really want to control the population of small scavenging animals living in our midst (rats, pigeons, mice and other possible disease vectors), small predators might be more effective. In other words, people aren't as good at killing rats as owls, coyotes, etc. Hawks feast on pigeons. And we'll never be as good at getting rid of mosquitos as bats, swallows, and dragonflies. Can we start a popular movement to have the city bring some sort of balance to the local ecology? Making eyries for raptors, providing nest sites and importing breeding pairs of owls, hanging bat houses, or swallow/swift nesting gourds?
(Coyotes have also been known to eat small pets -- maybe we don't really want them. Then again, those overpopulated, ravenous squirrels have just devastated my garden. Again.)
Added benefits: Excellent screeching, hooting and howling.
· Squirrels Take Back Boerum Hill [Curbed]