RatCity — Chicago Rat and Rodent Sightings Map

RatCity

4280 locations in the last 30 days (4470 reports) · Last sighting 17 hours ago

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What am I looking at?

Each circle is a Chicago neighborhood. The number is its report count — click one to zoom in and see individual sightings there.

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Colors are relative to what’s currently on screen, so they adjust as you switch time ranges.

Zoomed into a neighborhood or zip? Same colors group nearby reports, and a bright dot means that exact spot’s been reported more than once.

Why Chicago keeps score on its rats

Chicago has topped national rankings of the rattiest U.S. cities for over a decade running — a reputation the city itself takes seriously enough to run one of the country’s most active 311 rodent-complaint programs. Every baiting request, burrow report, and complaint filed with the city becomes a public record. RatCity turns that record, plus reports from people who live here, into a map you can actually use: is this block bad? Is it getting worse? Which neighborhood is winning (or losing) the fight this month?

What’s actually on the map

Most of the data is Chicago’s own — every “Rodent Baiting/Rat Complaint” filed through 311, pulled in automatically once a day so the map never goes stale. Layered on top are sightings reported directly by visitors, matched to the same neighborhood and zip-code boundaries the city uses, so a resident’s report and an official 311 complaint carry equal weight on the map.

Reading the map

Circles are sized and colored by how many reports a neighborhood has racked up — blue is quiet, red means trouble. The Day / Week / 30 Days / Year toggle up top changes the window, so you can see whether a neighborhood’s rat problem is a one-week blip or a year-long trend. Whoever’s in the lead gets crowned the neighborhood Rat King in the sidebar, a title that changes hands as new reports come in.

Noticed a rat that isn’t on the map yet? Use “Report a sighting” above — it takes under a minute and goes live as soon as it’s reviewed. Curious about where the data actually comes from or how reports are moderated? See the About page for the full breakdown.

Want more? The blog has weekly trend recaps and guides on Chicago’s rat problem and how to keep it out of your home.

Browse every sighting

58,615 reports match your filters.

DateAddressNeighborhoodWardStatusResponse timeReported viaSource
5/3/20262844 N LOWELL AVEHermosa31Completed2 daysInternetCity 311
12/5/20252844 N LOWELL AVEHermosa31Completed3 daysInternetCity 311
9/28/20252844 N LOWELL AVEHermosa31Completed4 daysInternetCity 311
1/6/20262844 N MOODY AVEBelmont Cragin30Completed1 dayPhone CallCity 311
3/9/20262844 N RIDGEWAY AVEAvondale35Completed2 daysInternetCity 311
1/8/20262844 N WESTERN AVEAvondale35Completed4 daysInternetCity 311
10/13/20252844 S LOWE AVEBridgeport11Completed8 daysInternetCity 311
9/13/20262844 W 21ST STSouth Lawndale25Completed11 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
4/12/20262844 W 21ST STSouth Lawndale25Completed2 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
9/11/20252844 W MCLEAN AVELogan Square1Completed7 daysPhone CallCity 311
12/16/20252844 W PALMER STLogan Square1Completed1 dayMobile DeviceCity 311
9/17/20262844 W PALMER STLogan Square1Completed13 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
6/6/20262845 E 130TH STHegewisch10Completed3 daysInternetCity 311
6/26/20262845 N ALBANY AVEAvondale35Completed10 daysPhone CallCity 311
8/24/20262845 N DAMEN AVENorth Center32Completed16 daysInternetCity 311
3/26/20262845 N HARDING AVEAvondale31Completed1 dayMobile DeviceCity 311
8/19/20262845 N LOTUS AVEBelmont Cragin31Completed14 daysInternetCity 311
8/5/20252845 N MELVINA AVEBelmont Cragin30Completed14 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
8/5/20252845 N MELVINA AVEBelmont Cragin30Completed14 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
9/24/20252845 N RIDGEWAY AVEAvondale35Completed9 daysPhone CallCity 311
10/13/20262845 N WASHTENAW AVEAvondale35Completed15 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
8/21/20262845 W 25TH STSouth Lawndale24Completed12 daysPhone CallCity 311
8/2/20252845 W 40TH PLBrighton Park12Completed10 daysInternetCity 311
9/28/20262845 W BARRY AVEAvondale35Completed9 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
5/13/20262845 W BARRY AVEAvondale35Completed2 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
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