In its forever war on rats, New York enlists a killing machine

The workers pulled on gloves. One of them tapped a dirt mound a few times with the end of a rake handle, and the soil shifted. The rat was fat, but fast. In a flash, it darted across the sidewalk and disappeared under a metal gate between two residential buildings. Unfazed, the humans moved slowly. They cleared the trash, raked and leveled the soil of the tree bed, then closed up most of the holes with expanding foam, gravel, and steel wool. Get Starting PointA guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter EmailInto the last hole they snaked a hose, which was attached to the BurrowRx, a gas-powered rat killing machine on wheels. The team’s exterminator turned on the machine, which began pumping carbon monoxide into the burrow. “It’s done humanely,” said Danny Hernandez, an administrative parks and recreation manager, describing how the rodents, at present, may be dying underground. “The rats get drowsy, and they fall asleep. Permanently.”The BurrowRx poses less collateral risk than poison, Hernandez said, which puts children, pets, and birds at risk.