Rats, Lies and Videotape (and other hazards of city business)


As a city dweller, believe me, I know. There are few things more disgusting than rats. I've dealt with rats in my parking garage where, much to our horror, we found evidence of rats rummaging around our Ford Taurus. When there was construction on my street, I was afraid to use the sidewalk at night for about six months one year for fear of having a furry rodent scurry across my shoes. Most recently, a soup kitchen and food pantry near my home suffered a rat infestation and had to shut down to clear the beasts out.

Rats are a fact of life in the city. As horrifying as each of these incidents were, they were eventually brought under control. The truth is, rats, cockroaches and other vermin can be controlled. And in a well-managed business or building, they should never get out of control.

That's why the recent, much-publicized rat infestation in a Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell (the restaurant chain is a division of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)) was so shocking. There probably are a few rats scurrying around in the sub-basements of many buildings in the city. But these rats were able to make it upstairs, in broad daylight. And so many of them! Some reports put the tally at dozens scurrying around.

For business owners, there are lots of lessons in this sorry tale. Here are a few of them -- followed by some rat-related information that may prove useful if you ever have to fight a rat infestation yourself:

Ignore a problem and it's bound to get bigger. As Michael Fowlkes wrote on BloggingStocks, the company initially deemed this a "temporary escalation" of what was previously understood to be a more ordinary rat problem.

Since when is any sign of rats in a restaurant not cause for immediate action? Bet the company wishes it had been a little more proactive about dealing with the rats when they first saw signs of them.

You never know when someone with a video camera will show up and turn an isolated event into a national story. Gee, none of the other rat infestations I've dealt with turned into national news stories. To be sure, that's in good part because they didn't happen during the day at well-known national restaurant chains. But what really gave this story legs is that news crews quickly mobilized and caught all the disgusting action on tape.

It's often the small businesses that really get hurt, not the big investors. Sure, the stock of Yum Brands fell after the fiasco, but only by about 50 cents the day the news broke. The owner of that franchise is bearing the brunt of the pain. And I bet that KFC/Taco Bell franchises in other urban areas were hurt temporarily by this news. Truth is, even if you're not part of the problem, you can feel the pain.

And here is some rat information that may prove useful if you ever encounter the critters on your watch. I learned these fun facts reading Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, by Robert Sullivan. If you want more tips, read this fascinating (and only mildly gross) book:

Rats reproduce very quickly. One pair of rats can potentially produce 15,000 descendants a year. So if you see signs of rats, don't wait to get rid of them.

You can't just poison your way out of a rat problem. They actually reproduce even quicker after their population is whittled down due to poisoning. The way to get rid of them is to eliminate their food source.

If you see a rat during the day, you have a serious problem. That means there are so many that some of them have to venture out during the day to find food. They are nocturnal and prefer to sleep during the day (another reason the KFC outbreak is so disgusting).

About 50,000 people are bitten by rats each year. Many are sleeping children who may have food residue on their faces. Rats have an excellent sense of smell.

The life expectancy of a rat living in New York City is about one year.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 03:18 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    WalletPop Headlines

    DailyFinance BlackBerry App

    My Portfolios

    Track your stocks here!

    Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

    BloggingStocks Partners

    More from AOL Money & Finance

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    Page Loaded in 1329121139659 ms.