WASHINGTON — D.C. residents have filed more rodent complaints with the city this year than in any of the previous three years, and the city is closing a smaller share of them by its own deadlines, according to an Inquisitor analysis of 311 service-request records.
From Jan. 1 through Nov. 12, the city logged 19,169 requests under the 311 service code for rodent inspection and treatment, up 25% from 15,319 in the same period of 2025, the records show. The count had drifted down for two years before that, from 16,255 in 2023 to 15,497 in 2024.
At the same time, the share of resolved requests closed on or before the due date the city sets for each one fell to 88.2% this year, from 95.6% in 2025, 98.2% in 2024 and 99.4% in 2023. In Ward 5, it was 70.3%.
The numbers arrive days after the D.C. Council approved the Rodent Education and Management Yields Results Amendment Act, or REMY Act (B26-0707), which starts a pilot to pay for rat-proof trash bins in business districts, restricts some rodenticides to trained and certified users and strengthens DC Health’s enforcement against infested private properties, The Washington Post reported. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George, who co-led the bill with Council member Christina Henderson, has pledged to rid the city of rats.
How we did the analysis
The Inquisitor queried the District’s public 311 City Service Requests datasets for 2023 through 2026, published through Open Data DC and the city’s GIS service, and counted every request filed under service code S0311, which DC Health’s rodent control program handles. To compare like periods, each year is counted from Jan. 1 through Nov. 12. A request is counted as on time if its recorded resolution date falls on or before its recorded service due date.
One change matters for reading the trend. In May 2026, the request type was renamed from “Rodent Inspection and Treatment” to “DC Health Rodent & Vector Control.” The service code stayed the same, and no other rodent request type appears in the 2025 or 2026 data. But the monthly count jumped after the rename, and the records do not say whether the new name coincided with changes in what residents could report under it. For that reason, this analysis also compares the months before the rename on their own.
Even on that narrower measure, requests rose. From January through April, residents filed 5,046 rodent requests in 2026, up 20% from 4,209 in the same months of 2025. From May through October, the count was 13,523, up 27% from 10,632.
311 requests measure complaints, not rats. Counts can rise because more residents report problems, because the city promotes the 311 app, or because a single infestation draws several calls. They are, however, the city’s own record of where residents are asking for help and how fast it comes.
| Year | Requests | Change from prior year | Resolved on or before due date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 16,255 | n/a | 99.4% |
| 2024 | 15,497 | -4.7% | 98.2% |
| 2025 | 15,319 | -1.1% | 95.6% |
| 2026 | 19,169 | +25.1% | 88.2% |
| Month | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 650 | 858 | +32% |
| February | 833 | 652 | -22% |
| March | 1,214 | 1,425 | +17% |
| April | 1,512 | 2,111 | +40% |
| May | 1,700 | 2,261 | +33% |
| June | 1,797 | 2,354 | +31% |
| July | 1,856 | 2,307 | +24% |
| August | 1,801 | 2,329 | +29% |
| September | 1,828 | 2,092 | +14% |
| October | 1,650 | 2,180 | +32% |
| Nov. 1-12 | 478 | 600 | +26% |
Where the complaints are
Every ward filed more rodent requests this year than last, but the increases were far from even. Ward 1, which covers Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and the U Street corridor, again led the city, with 3,977 requests, up 37%. Ward 6, which includes Capitol Hill and the Navy Yard, rose 36%.
The steepest climb came in Ward 3, west of Rock Creek Park, which filed the fewest complaints in the city in each of the previous three years. Its count nearly doubled, to 895 from 491, an 82% increase. Ward 8, east of the Anacostia River, rose the least, 7%, to 592.
| Ward | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Change, 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 3,364 | 3,163 | 2,904 | 3,977 | +37.0% |
| Ward 2 | 1,907 | 1,858 | 2,316 | 2,889 | +24.7% |
| Ward 3 | 367 | 428 | 491 | 895 | +82.3% |
| Ward 4 | 2,790 | 2,661 | 2,850 | 3,309 | +16.1% |
| Ward 5 | 3,020 | 3,094 | 2,924 | 3,504 | +19.8% |
| Ward 6 | 2,492 | 1,952 | 1,437 | 1,961 | +36.5% |
| Ward 7 | 1,561 | 1,728 | 1,842 | 2,042 | +10.9% |
| Ward 8 | 745 | 596 | 555 | 592 | +6.7% |
The 2023 and 2024 totals by ward exclude a small number of requests with no ward recorded, 9 and 17 respectively.
By ZIP code, the most requests this year came from 20002, which spans much of Northeast and parts of Capitol Hill, with 3,235, followed by 20011 in the Petworth, Brightwood and Fort Totten areas of Ward 4 with 3,020, 20009 around Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle with 2,535, 20001 with 2,394 and 20010 in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant with 1,548.
Fewer requests closed on time
The city’s records assign each request a service due date. Through the end of 2024, nearly every rodent request was resolved by it. That has slipped. Of the 18,957 rodent requests resolved so far this year, 16,716 were closed by the due date, or 88.2%. Another 212 requests filed this year were still open as of Nov. 12, compared with two still open from the same period of 2025.
The decline was sharpest in Ward 5, which includes Brookland, Eckington, Trinidad and Fort Lincoln. Of 3,450 resolved requests there, 2,426, or 70.3%, were closed on time. Ward 3 was next at 79.0%, followed by Ward 8 at 82.0%. Ward 6 had the highest on-time share, 97.5%.
| Ward | Resolved | On time | Share on time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 3,945 | 3,700 | 93.8% |
| Ward 2 | 2,854 | 2,597 | 91.0% |
| Ward 3 | 878 | 694 | 79.0% |
| Ward 4 | 3,271 | 3,040 | 92.9% |
| Ward 5 | 3,450 | 2,426 | 70.3% |
| Ward 6 | 1,953 | 1,905 | 97.5% |
| Ward 7 | 2,022 | 1,875 | 92.7% |
| Ward 8 | 584 | 479 | 82.0% |
| Citywide | 18,957 | 16,716 | 88.2% |
“Resolved on time” is a measure of the city’s own paperwork: it compares two dates in the record and does not show whether an infestation was eliminated. The data also do not show how many inspections led to treatment, baiting or a notice of violation. The requests are handled by DC Health’s rodent control program.
What the new law is meant to change
The REMY Act is aimed at the source the city’s own program emphasizes: food. Henderson has said easy access to food sustains rats more than anything else and that residents relying on poison alone see limited results, according to the Post. The measure will cost about $3 million over several years, with grants going to business improvement districts and DC Main Streets programs, the Post reported. It also requires an abatement plan for private properties with infestations.
The poison restrictions respond to concern about wildlife and pets. Supporters cited autopsy findings of rodenticide residue in 85 of 100 animals sampled, the Post reported.
The 311 data suggest where the pilot’s trash-bin money may meet the most demand. Wards 1 and 2, home to dense restaurant corridors such as 14th Street, U Street, Adams Morgan and Georgetown, together filed 6,866 requests this year, more than a third of the citywide total. The law’s enforcement provisions, meanwhile, will fall to the same program whose on-time rate has slipped for three straight years.
Lewis George has said she will review the Bowser administration’s rat birth control pilot and its trash-reduction efforts after she takes office in January, the Post reported.
What to watch
The 311 datasets update continuously, and the year’s final count will include the slower winter months, when complaints typically fall. The Inquisitor will track whether the on-time rate recovers, how the REMY grants are distributed by ward once the pilot is set up, and whether the incoming administration changes how rodent requests are classified or reported.
Leave a Reply