NYC takes aim at subway rats

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NEW YORK, March 24 (UPI) -- New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is testing a new rat trap it hopes will remove the animals from subway stations.

Howard Roberts, a spokesman for the transit system, said that two decades of putting out poison baits has failed to make a dent in the rat population, the New York Post reported.

"It's a constant source of annoyance to passengers," he said. "It's one more thing that if we can improve, obviously our passengers would be a lot more comfortable."

Rats are a common sight in subway stations, usually down on the tracks searching for discarded food while passengers watch them from the platform. The new traps are rodent equivalents of roach motels, designed to shut the rats in with nothing to eat except poisoned bait.

The MTA also plans to seal all cracks in rooms used to store trash.

The traps are to be put out in one Manhattan subway station, Franklin Street, with a rat census taken before they are set and a few weeks alter.