Sure we’ve got a rat czar, a rat tracking app, and an interactive rat map (hell we’re not even the rattiest city in America), but anything else might be a little overboard. Well, that’s not the case for Kenny Bollwerk, aka “Rat Daddy,” who is personally giving late night rat tours around New York City.
Founder of ‘RatTok,’ Bollwerk didn’t intend to be a rat tour guide. In fact, it sort of just happened, he explained to Business Insider. As he began posting more about the rats around NYC on TikTok, people would reach out to him about meeting up and seeing the rats with their own eyes when they were in town. Since January, he’s done over 50 rat tours for people coming from all across the world.
The one hour tour covers different areas of NYC, from Sunnyside, Queens to Grand Central Station. All tours begin at 10:45pm and cost $50. They can be booked via Bollwerk’s website. He also livestreams rat content on TikTok, drawing thousands of viewers. According to his website, those who subscribe to his TikTok get a free 2-hour tour! Plus, fans can even secure their own ‘RatTok’ merch!
So why are people going on rat tours? Well, Bollwerk seems to think it has to do with the novelty of the experience and “the element of surprise,” he told Business Insider. You truly don’t know what you’ll see, be it rats running across bodega inventory or jumping into trash cans. “Rats are like a New York City mascot. People want to see it for themselves,” he said, according to an article from The New York Post.
However, Rat Daddy isn’t just raising awareness with NYC’s rat crisis. He’s also showing others how to mitigate the problem and the consequences that come with it. “I don’t like rats. In New York City, they’re not pets. They’re pests. That’s what I try to explain,” he said to Business Insider.
For more information on Rat Daddy and his tours, check out his website here.