RatCity — Chicago Rat and Rodent Sightings Map

RatCity

4068 locations in the last 30 days (4250 reports) · Last sighting 2 days 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

59,447 reports match your filters.

DateAddressNeighborhoodWardStatusResponse timeReported viaSource
12/3/20253842 W WEST END AVEWest Garfield Park28Completed1 dayPhone CallCity 311
8/23/20263842 W ARTHINGTON STWest Garfield Park24Completed10 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
10/1/20253842 W 84TH STAshburn18Completed8 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
11/5/20263842 W 82ND PLAshburn18Open—Phone CallCity 311
10/20/20263842 S CALIFORNIA AVEBrighton Park12Completed16 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
8/29/20253842 N NEWCASTLE AVEDunning38Completed11 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
8/14/20253842 N NEWCASTLE AVEDunning38Completed7 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
8/5/20263842 N GREENVIEW AVELake View46Completed12 daysInternetCity 311
8/13/20263842 N DAMEN AVENorth Center47Completed4 daysPhone CallCity 311
8/9/20263842 N CHRISTIANA AVEIrving Park33Completed11 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
7/20/20263842 N CHRISTIANA AVEIrving Park33Completed10 daysPhone CallCity 311
8/19/20253841 W 84TH PLAshburn18Completed8 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
8/6/20253841 W 84TH PLAshburn18Completed7 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
9/6/20263841 W 61ST PLWest Lawn23Completed10 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
9/26/20263841 W 61ST PLWest Lawn23Completed6 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
8/12/20263841 W 61ST PLWest Lawn23Completed12 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
7/14/20263841 N PONTIAC AVEDunning38Completed13 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
11/19/20253841 N PITTSBURGH AVEDunning38Completed1 dayMobile DeviceCity 311
10/16/20253841 N LAWNDALE AVEIrving Park30Completed8 daysInternetCity 311
3/30/20263841 N JANSSEN AVELake View46Completed1 dayPhone CallCity 311
1/20/20263841 N CHRISTIANA AVEIrving Park33Completed1 dayInternetCity 311
5/6/20263840 W ROOSEVELT RDNorth Lawndale24Completed2 daysAlderman's OfficeCity 311
9/14/20263840 W 86TH PLAshburn18Completed11 daysMobile DeviceCity 311
7/22/20263840 W 86TH PLAshburn18Completed1 dayMobile DeviceCity 311
7/27/20263840 W 86TH PLAshburn18Completed9 daysInternetCity 311
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