Interesting. I lived and worked in Hartford for several years and never once encountered a rat.

Living downtown for 6 years in 3 different apartment buildings; hell no. Never seen as so much as a bug. There was a gopher or a bat or some shit that fried a transformer like 4 years ago or some shit though and caused the only power outage ive ever experienced here.

The only time I've seen rats has been outside some of the buildings in West Hartford center, around the lot/garage near Barcelona.

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I lived downtown for 5 years and yeah, I've seen quite a few rats. Mostly in bushes outside at night or in dumpsters, but I've never seen an indoor rat in Hartford. I had some neighbors who also had rat problems with their trash cans, but they put out bait boxes and I haven't seen them since.

Honestly though, rats don't bother me at all as long as they stay outside. They're kinda cute and I think squirrels are way more visible and annoying.

It was a raccoon! I remember that outage well, since the power at the bar I worked at went out.

I work in the south end in an industrial strip and there are some chonk ass rats outside, with just as many junkyard kitties looking for them.

I see rats frequently in the west end , Parkville and downtown. Not anywhere else to tbh.

Have you been in the capitol?

Up until recently I drove a trash truck picking up about 500 commercial or apartment dumpsters a week, at least 300 of which were actually in Hartford. There are definitely a ton of rats in the city, many the size of my wife’s cat (13-15 lbs). It did seem that the apartment buildings were worse than the restaurants/other commercial spaces, probably because they didn’t get picked up as often and pest control was not employed as liberally.

Briefly. I've definitely spent a lot of time in a lot of the schools throughout the city.

They are there but def depends it doesn’t seem to be as bad as it seems they say it is

I lived in Hartford for 9 years and only saw a few rats ever, always outside bar or restaurant dumpsters

I always see rats in Hartford running near trash or alleys. South downtown. Saw someone report them in the 311 app too

I’ve lived in Hartford for close to 20 years and I have seen rats here and there, usually around dumpsters, or any time there’s been a big gathering of people where there is a lot of garbage that hasn’t been picked up yet. For example, after a parade or festival when the trash cans are overflowing.

Rats are a property management issue everywhere in the world. Rats go where people make it easy (through lack of maintenance/vigilance) to access shelter and food, are super smart, and are prolific breeders. Rats become more noticeable when their habitats are disturbed (such as during construction) and wherever there is a food source: any public trash can or restaurant dumpster, supermarket loading dock, farm feed bin. Some of the worst rat issues in any city (including Hartford) stem from absentee landlords not providing adequate trash receptacles for their tenants (residential and commercial) and not maintaining their property (reducing opportunities for rats to get in plus ongoing pest control treatment).

Rats aren't too bad in Hartford compared to big cities like Philly, Baltimore, Boston, etc. I don't know if you've all spent time in some of those cities but in the summer there can be large (cat sized) rats swarming around, even in nice neighborhoods. But there are definitely some localized problems with them in some of the outlying Hartford residential areas, where the city and/or landlords aren't doing their jobs.

Agree. Raccoons and squirrels can be nasty. They'll jump out of dumpsters on to you if you walk by at the wrong time. Raccoons will also definitely live in your attic and that can be a HUGE problem

Rats tend to be pretty chill or nonexistent in CT because they get trapped or caught by cats and other predators, though there are some houses in Hartford where they will come inside and are a bad problem for a specific complex or city block sometimes.

If you're in a big city and they are swarming in large groups (or stuck in a subway car with you) or endemic to an entire neighborhood, they can be more of a problem, but that's definitely not the case here.

I've seen more rats in nyc during a day trip than I've seen living in Hartford for the last 17 years