Rats Are Surging Across Westchester Villages This Summer. Larchmont and White Plains Are Just the Latest.

The Short Version

This Pristine Pest news report covers a pattern most Westchester homeowners are only seeing one town at a time. Larchmont brought in an exterminator this summer to deal with rats that residents say have proliferated near the train station over the past six months. In White Plains, a construction-driven rat problem on Mamaroneck Avenue has drawn city summonses against the property owner. Neither is an isolated local nuisance. Westchester is named among nine large New York counties on a national list of the most rat-infested counties, and a similar dispute played out in North Castle just two years ago.

Larchmont: Rats Near the Train Station

Residents describe the change as dramatic. "At night when you walk out, there's just rats running around everywhere," one resident told News 12 Westchester. An exterminator began targeted rodent control operations this summer, and the village posted a notice warning residents they may see increased rodent activity, or deceased rodents, in clearly marked treatment areas.

Village officials point to a mix of causes: improper garbage disposal by businesses, people skipping trash receptacles and food left on sidewalks and streets near the station. Because the affected areas sit partly on MTA property, the village is coordinating directly with the transit agency on both treatment and longer-term fixes, including improved dumpster and trash enclosures for nearby businesses and landlords.

Village Mayor Sarah Bauer said Larchmont is working with the MTA to resolve the issue, since the problem areas are located on MTA property. The village has committed to monitoring the situation and continuing broader sanitation improvements.

White Plains: Construction Dirt and a Paper Trail of Summonses

On Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, the trigger looks different but the outcome rhymes. A nearby restaurant owner and a property committee chairman both point to exposed dirt from ongoing construction as the draw, with rats first arriving last year and staying because food sources kept them around.

A local worker described the scene on Mamaroneck Avenue:

"They're always running back and forth through there, up through the bushes and near the sidewalk. So, yeah its not comforting, especially with restaurants right there."

Mayor Justin Brasch has said responsibility for elimination efforts sits with the property owner. The city's Department of Buildings has stayed in contact with the owner and issued summonses requiring compliance with local law, while the city says it will remain "involved and vigilant until this is fixed." Property management has planned concrete replacement work and fumigation as the actual remedy, though not everyone is confident it ends the problem quickly.

This Isn't New: North Castle's Warning From 2024

Westchester has been here before. In 2024, a rat infestation on Palmer Avenue in North Castle's North White Plains section escalated for three weeks before it made news, long enough for one homeowner, Holly Mottola, to trap nearly 100 rats in her own backyard and spend almost $1,000 trying to keep up.

Mottola described what the infestation had done to her family's routine:

"I'm beside myself. I could even cry just now. It's just too much already. It's destroyed my outside living that I usually have with my family. It's destroyed it."

That case also followed a familiar shape: a gas station owner and a neighboring restaurant blamed each other for the source, while the Westchester County Health Department opened an investigation into both properties. Residents, largely uninterested in assigning blame, just wanted the rats gone. The dispute over responsibility is exactly what's playing out again in White Plains today.

Why Westchester Keeps Showing Up on These Lists

None of this is unique to any one village. A national study by Cinch, identifying the most rat-infested counties in the country, named Westchester among nine large New York counties on its list, alongside Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Erie and Monroe counties. New York as a state ranked 20th most rat-infested nationally.

What This Means for Westchester Homeowners

Municipal action in Larchmont and White Plains addresses public infrastructure and the specific commercial properties named in complaints. It doesn't reach individual homes nearby that share the same food sources and entry points. A rat colony displaced by treatment on one property often relocates to the next-closest food and shelter source, which can mean a neighboring home rather than an actual reduction in the local population.

Sealing entry points, securing garbage and removing harborage are the same fundamentals whether the rats came from a train station, a construction site or a neighboring restaurant. A single sighting is usually a DIY-manageable problem. Recurring activity, droppings or gnaw marks, the pattern every case in this report eventually reached, is the point where professional rodent control and exclusion outperforms trapping alone, since exclusion closes the entry points a trap never addresses.

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