
Mayor de Blasio went to the Bushwick Houses to announce new initiatives to fight a rat problem in NYCHA developments. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)
The city is bringing its war on rats to the ten most-infested NYCHA developments, Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday.
At each development, the city will be dumping dry ice into burrows where rats hide — hopefully causing them to suffocate within in a few hours.
Hizzoner took an up-close look at the dry ice extermination at Brooklyn's Bushwick Houses — though at least one rat escaped the poisoning attempt, skittering away despite NYCHA workers' best efforts to stomp on it and kill it with a shovel.
Sitting behind a sign declaring "Watch Out Rats!" de Blasio said coming upon the rodents has become a too-common part of New Yorkers' days.
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"There's a rat right in the middle of your life. You don't want that. It's not acceptable," he said.

Workers apply dry ice to rat burrows at the Bushwick Houses. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)
At the ten developments, NYCHA will use concrete to cover dirt floors in basements that have allowed rats to burrow freely. Half of the dirt floors will be replaced this year and the other half next year.
The city is also giving out tiny trash cans that they're hoping residents will use instead of full-size cans, so the trash will more easily fit into garbage chutes and not cause clogs or spills that attract rats.
The projects — which also include Webster, Marcy, Butler, Morris I and II, Riis I and II, Morrissania, and Hylan — will each get a full-time exterminator.
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The city is spending $16.3 million on the concrete pads for dirt floors, and $8.8 million on trash compactors.

De Blasio shows off one of the tiny trash cans the city is hoping residents use to cut down on trash chute clogs that attract rats. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)
Officials started using the dry ice to smoke out rats after the Environmental Protection Agency signed off on the method that previously wasn't allowed, which de Blasio called rare good news from the Trump administration.
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," he said.
At Bushwick, officials said they've already been able to cut down a rat population that may have numbered over 1,200 rodents. They originally found 129 burrows, which are estimated to house about 10 rats each, but counted only 19 in an April survey.
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Resident Marisol Robles said she's used to coming across rats so fierce she jokes she may get kidnapped by one. "They're like ferocious. It's like a rabbit had a baby with a wolf. And it's scary," she said.
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