D.C. rodent complaints rise 24% as city response slows, records show

By Marcus Tillery

WASHINGTON — Washington residents have filed more rodent complaints with the city this year than over the same period in any of the three previous years, and D.C. Health is answering them more slowly, according to an Inquisitor analysis of the District’s 311 service-request records.

From Jan. 1 through Oct. 25, residents and businesses logged 18,124 requests for rodent inspection and treatment, up 24 percent from 14,561 over the same stretch of 2025 and up 17 percent from 15,516 in 2023. Of the 2026 requests that have been resolved, 88.8 percent were closed by the due date the city’s own system assigns, typically seven days after a request is filed. That compares with 95.6 percent last year, 98.4 percent in 2024 and 99.3 percent in 2023.

The slowdown is concentrated in one part of the city. In Ward 5, which stretches from Brookland and Edgewood to Ivy City and Trinidad, 70.3 percent of resolved rodent requests this year were closed on time, down from 97.4 percent in 2025. The median request in Ward 5 took 5.7 days to resolve this year, compared with 1.1 days last year. Ward 5 accounts for 18 percent of this year’s rodent requests but 47 percent of the ones that were closed late.

The figures come from the District’s public 311 City Service Requests data, which the city’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer publishes through its service request map service. Every rodent request in the four years examined is filed under the same 311 service code, S0311, and assigned to D.C. Health, which runs the city’s Rodent and Vector Control Division. The Inquisitor downloaded every such request for Jan. 1 through Oct. 25 of each year and counted requests, resolutions and on-time closures. The data were retrieved early Monday and may change as the city updates records.

Complaints up in every ward

Rodent requests rose in all eight wards compared with last year. The steepest increase was in Ward 3, where requests nearly doubled from a low base, and in Wards 1 and 6, where they rose by more than a third.

Ward 1, which includes Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan, again produced the most requests. By ZIP code, 20002, which covers parts of Capitol Hill, the H Street corridor, NoMa and Trinidad, led the city with 3,048 requests, up 27 percent. Requests in 20007, which covers Georgetown, Glover Park and Burleith, rose 87 percent, from 542 to 1,014.

The rise began in the spring. January and February requests were roughly in line with last year, but every month from March through October brought more requests than the same month of 2025. April requests rose 40 percent, from 1,509 to 2,109, and monthly totals stayed above 2,000 from April through September.

On-time rates are calculated on resolved requests only. Most October 2026 requests were still open when the data were retrieved, so the October figure will change.

Ward 5’s slowdown

In Ward 5, the drop in on-time closures was sharpest in June, when 17.1 percent of the 415 resolved requests filed that month were closed by their due date. The ward’s on-time rate recovered to 89.4 percent in July and 85.2 percent in August, then fell to 68.5 percent in September. In 2025, Ward 5’s monthly on-time rate never dipped below 95 percent.

The records do not say why Ward 5 requests took longer. The data set lists the agency and the request’s dates and status but not staffing, inspection routes or the outcome of each visit. The Inquisitor has asked D.C. Health and Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker’s office about the change.

Citywide, the median rodent request was resolved in 2.2 days this year, up from 1.6 days in 2025. The number of resolved requests that took more than 10 days rose from 281 to 920. As of the data pull, 446 rodent requests filed this year were still open, 435 of them from October. The oldest open request was filed April 8.

A new label and a dashboard

In May, the city’s 311 system began filing rodent requests under a new name, “DC Health Rodent & Vector Control,” in place of “Rodent Inspection and Treatment.” The service code and the assigned agency did not change. The old label covers 5,051 requests filed from Jan. 1 through May 1, and the new label covers 13,073 filed since.

On July 9, D.C. Health launched a Rodent Control Dashboard to show “rodent service requests, abatement activities, and rodent control tips.” In the announcement, the agency said that since January 2026 its Rodent Control Program “has responded to just over 5,000 complaints, and with a 99.9% resolution rate, the team has identified and treated nearly 10,000 burrows across all eight wards.” It said the team treated 25,720 burrows in 2025.

The 311 records show 10,121 rodent requests filed from Jan. 1 through July 8, the day before the announcement: 5,051 under the old label and 5,070 under the new one. The Inquisitor has asked D.C. Health whether the dashboard’s complaint count includes requests filed under the new label, and how the agency calculates its resolution rate. The dashboard itself is the agency’s official presentation of its program data.

“Successful rodent control is a shared responsibility,” D.C. Health Director Dr. Ayanna Bennett said in the July release. “When communities report concerns and work alongside DC Health, we can make more informed decisions and achieve better outcomes in reducing rodent activity throughout the District.”

What complaints do and don’t measure

A 311 request is a report, not a rat count. More requests can reflect more rodents, but also greater public awareness, easier reporting or repeat complaints about the same block. D.C. Health has encouraged residents to report rodent activity through 311, and its July release described the dashboard as “powered by reports from residents, businesses, and 311.” Rising complaints in a ward can therefore mean residents are more engaged as well as that conditions are worse.

Timeliness is a cleaner measure of the city’s response, because the due date is set by the city’s system when a request is filed. On that measure the program performed well through 2025 and has slipped in 2026, most of all in Ward 5.

The council’s rat bill

The numbers arrive as the D.C. Council moves toward a final vote on At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson’s Rodent Education and Management Yields (“REMY”) Results Amendment Act of 2026, which the council approved unanimously on first reading Oct. 20. The bill would, among other things, subsidize rodent-proof trash receptacles for businesses. Henderson’s office has said a second and final vote is expected at the council’s Nov. 17 meeting. Its fiscal impact statement is posted on the council’s legislative site.

“So long as rats have easy access to food, they will not go away,” Henderson said during the Oct. 20 meeting.

Residents can report rodent activity by calling 311 or at 311.dc.gov. D.C. Health’s prevention guidance asks residents to store trash in containers with tight-fitting lids, remove outdoor clutter and overgrown vegetation, and clean up pet waste promptly.

How we did this

The Inquisitor queried the District’s 311 service request layers for 2023 through 2026 for every request whose service description includes “Rodent” and that was filed between Jan. 1 and Oct. 25 of each year. A request was counted as on time if its resolution date was on or before its service due date. Median resolution times were calculated from the filing date to the resolution date. Ward and ZIP code are as recorded by the city. Canceled requests are included in totals, which follows the city’s own counts; there were 20 this year and 13 last year.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from D.C. Health, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, the Office of Unified Communications, which runs 311, and the offices of Councilmembers Henderson and Parker.