um can you tell me a little bit about what are the sewers like What kind of things do you see down there? What does it smell like? Is it scary? Is it fun?

Well, you know, I have to tell you that when I first climbed down a ladder into a sewer of New York City, my heart was pounding in my chest because, I mean, you don't know what you're going into, right? And there's not much to it.

So it's not exciting.

It's just a tunnel.

And right below your feet is a low stream of, you know, effluent that goes by.

Because there's enough air exchange alley, a lot of people think, oh, it must smell horrible and stuff.

But it actually does not.

There's a big cat over there.

Rats are good at snuggling.

If you look at a rat, and you hold it from one end with its tail, and you hold the other end by the snout, it's a tubular-shaped animal because it evolved through tunnels.

If you put a rat in your arm as you hold it, say, sitting down watching TV, and you wanna pet your rat, you hold it in your arm, and, uh, that rat will constantly probe its pointed snout into y- the cavity between your arm and your body and snuggle up.

So I don't doubt that, who knows, maybe every single mammal, at least to a certain degree, has been subjected to some kinda crazy human wackiness, you know? Look, the fact that it was that celebrity, and, you know, gee, his name even, it's G-E-R-E, uh, you know, and gerbil's G-E-R-B-I-L.

Like, how coincidental is that? So did that even happen to that guy? I don't know.

Bobby has heard time and again the fearful and persistent myths about rodents.

rodents.It's just, you know, as a rodentologist, Alan, when I'm out doing surveys in streets, and I'm coming and going from all kinds of environments to put together my reports, people ask me, "What are you doing?" And I say, "Well, I'm surveying for rats." And it's so common for people to say to me, "Listen, you're not gonna believe what I'm about to tell you, but it's a true story," and they say it so convincingly and, and emphatically.

Most common one I get is, "You know, my best friend's great-grandfather," 'cause certainly it's not gonna be anybody you can trace, "But my best friend's great-grandfather, he worked for the sewers in New York City, and I'm telling you, he went down in sewer in, in the Bronx, and he never came out.

His professor asked the class to consider the mayor's recent announcement.

I remember him giving us a lesson about that event, and he said, "I want you to write a homework lesson.

What do you think this is going to do for the rat population of the city to put trash in plastic bags? What will this do?"

In the Terminator version of this movie, which would be called Exterminator, the human survivors of New Rat City would send Bobby back to dive in front of the podium and knock the bag out of Mayor Lindsay's hand.

If I was there sitting in the audience, or any pest professional, we all would've went, "Whoa, whoa, stop.

We have questions back here in the back row.

Stop, stop." My message would've, I would've stood up and say, "This is going to be a colossal mistake in public health, and a colossal mistake in quality of life, and it needs to be stopped, and rethink this whole thing with different approaches."

What else can we see?

I wanna show you something much more interesting.

You'll notice along this building perimeter, if you let your eyes just continue along, you will see the gray concrete that's light, but next to the building you'll see this dark charcoal stain that's linear, right? The stain goes around, hugs the building.

That is from rats.

And that's what's called a sebum stain.

Rodents like to hug walls so they feel safe and secure, so that's a very clear sign.

And if you came here between 10:00 and 2:00 tonight, chances are good you might see a rat running along there.

Back on the street with Bobby Corrigan, we still haven't seen a rat, but on a nearby park bench, we do come across signs of recent human activity, a discarded wrapper from a raisin cake.