The city of Somerville announced on Feb. 19 that it is participating in a Rodent Fertility Control Study using Evolve, which is a hormonal fertility control product designed to curb rat reproduction in a humane manner. This is in partnership with the Cambridge Public Health Department and Cambridge Inspectional Services Department.
Although Boston has yet to explore the product, cities like New York City have tested Evolve. The product was placed in two commercial locations, Somerville High School and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Lincoln Park is set to be the first residential location for the study.
ContraPest, also made by SenesTech, is a similar pest control that was widely used around Somerville before Evolve. A major downside to this product is that it is liquid and freezes in the winter, making it hard for rats to consume and therefore rendering it ineffective.
Evolve, however, is a soft bait with the primary ingredient being cottonseed oil. When rats consume it frequently enough, the cottonseed oil decreases the sperm count in male rats and disrupts reproductive organs and hormone cycles in female rats, resulting in lower fertility levels across the board.
As opposed to some other pest control methods that are out in the open for any animal to consume, Evolve is placed on poles within bait boxes that need keys to be unlocked and has been observed to be safe around non-target animals.
“I would say certain techniques for pest control in general can be seen as inhumane when some people just put out bait, like rodenticide, just [out in the] open, so that’s not very safe,” Alicia Privett, environmental health coordinator for Somerville, said.
The humaneness of Evolve has been emphasized in its advertisement for this reason but also for the fact that it is a birth control and not a poison.
“When you’re looking at it from a humane perspective, with the fertility control product, the goal is not to kill the rat; it’s just to keep them from reproducing,” Amanda Windsor, public health compliance specialist for the Cambridge Public Health Department, said.
When looking for a residential area to test this new product, Somerville’s Inspectional Services Department took into account areas that had the most complaints about rodents and the most observed rodent activity. Lincoln Park was an area that has historically had many complaints and is also an optimal location for rats to inhabit.
“Finding an area where there’s all this housing alongside the perimeter of these parks was pretty ideal for us to try to set up a study and see if we can monitor the right activity there and use the birth control product and see if it reduces the population,” Windsor said.
Privett emphasized that seeing a rat can have varying effects on people, ranging from indifference to feelings of anxiety and distress, illustrated by the number of complaints received.
“[For] some people, it doesn’t bother them,” Privett said. “So if they see a rat every once in a while, it’s not that big of a deal to them. But [for] some people, it is a big deal, and it affects their mental health.”
Pest control aims to make communities feel safer and cleaner, and Evolve is yet another solution to a rodent problem common in most metropolitan areas.
“Our goal with using Evolve is to, of course, see if it’s effective, and if so, how big of an effect is that,” Windsor said. “But also, just generally, to kind of expand our toolbox and add to our options for addressing the local rodent population.”
First-year Andrew Maurer said that he sees rats across campus, especially at night and by Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center. Although he feels indifferent toward them, he recognizes the benefits of a study like this.
“If there’s an actual rat problem, I think it probably is a good thing to keep the population under control so that diseases don’t spread, and generally … just trying to keep the campus population healthy,” Maurer said.
Aidan Moclair, another first-year, said that he usually runs into rats at night. He was less indifferent to their presence on campus.
“It makes the campus feel unclean, for sure, just because of that stigma around rats,” Moclair said.
When informed of the study, some additional questions about its impact on the community were raised for Moclair.
“I would have some concerns to see how reducing the rat population would affect other populations,” Moclair said. “I understand that the chemical itself doesn’t harm other animals, but [I wonder] how changing that population can affect others.”
The study is set to terminate by the end of this year, but depending on its success and whether they can get more volunteers, Somerville’s Inspectional Services Department is open to extending it. Their overall goal is to replace toxic and less effective rodenticides with nontoxic and more efficient alternatives.
“We’d definitely be open to sharing any research and any evidence that we find with other cities,” Privett said.
