Huge rats have overtaken a Philadelphia neighborhood, and residents are begging the city to take action.
In Mayfair, a working-class neighborhood in northeast Philly, locals have been sidestepping rats on their way to work and spending hundreds of dollars on traps.
It is common to see the rodents eating trash, living in cars and scurrying across the pavement as they emerge from and reenter their burrows.
And some of them are enormous. Resident Campion Marotta told WPVI: 'We have cats, but I think the rats are bigger than my cats.'
Campion, who has lived in her Mayfair house for 30 years, added that the problem has been most pronounced since January, and that 'It gets my anxiety level beyond what it should be.'
Mark Mastrangelo, another local, told WPVI that he is aggravated, sickened and sad to see his neighborhood 'overrun by rats.'
He said that he has had to cement his yard to prevent the pests from burrowing on his property and that he has been setting traps to try to alleviate the problem for more than a year.
'I actually have a log down in my basement of how many rats I got last year. 34. That's 34 I caught,' Mastrangelo told WPVI.
Enormous rats have overtaken the northeast Philadelphia neighborhood of Mayfair. Resident Campion Marotta (left) said that some of them are bigger than her cats
Mark Mastrangelo (left), another resident, said that he caught 34 rats last year and has caught an additional 17 since the beginning of the year
In Mayfair, it is common to see the pests scurrying across the pavement, emerging from burrows and living in cars. A rat living in a car's hollowed-out headlight is pictured
And this year, the homeowner is on pace to surpass that number. He said that he has already caught 17 rats since the start of 2026.
Despite those impressive numbers, Mastrangelo's efforts seem to have barely made a dent in the rodents' population. As he was interviewed on camera by WPVI, a rat could be seen scurrying behind him and climbing into an open trash bin.
Mayfair residents have filed complaints with the city, and Vector Control with the Department of Public Health visited the neighborhood on April 13.
But the inspectors said they did not see any rodents during their visit, according to Marotta, so action from the city remains elusive.
Marotta said that the rat population likely exploded due to unmaintained properties in the neighborhood, which creates opportunities for the rodents to nest and feed on garbage. Enforcing cleaner streets would likely alleviate the problem, she added.
Although action from the city has been muted, help may be on the way from the state level.
Pennsylvania State Representative Jared Solomon, whose district covers the Mayfair neighborhood, told WPVI that he plans to work with the city to make sure trash regulations are enforced.
'We'll make sure this is taken care of,' he told the outlet. 'They're right that we need to do everything to make sure that their block is safe and secure and they have a certain quality of life.'
While Mastrangelo discussed how many rats he has caught in an on-camera interview, a rat could be seen scurrying behind him into an open trash bin
Resident Marotta said that the rats are likely thriving due to unmaintained properties in the neighborhood. A rat is pictured among trash in Mayfair
There has been little action from the city to address the infestation, but State Representative Jared Solomon assured that the problem will be 'taken care of'
Solomon added that a second visit from Vector Control was scheduled for Thursday morning and that crews will continue visiting the neighborhood until the problem is resolved.
Philadelphia has long contended with enormous rats plaguing neighborhoods across the city, but the problem seems to be especially pronounced in the city's northeast.
Rats the size of cats in Philly made headlines back in 2019 after residents of Howland Street, which is also in the city's northeast but closer to the center than Mayfair, complained to NBC Philadelphia that the rodents 'run the block.'
At the time, Philadelphia environmental health program administrator Raymond Delaney told the outlet that peak rat season in the city runs from April through October.