Marc Levy Residents of the area around University Road have had issues with rats, but on Nov. 25, 2025 there were none to be found.

Killing rats and keeping them from breeding aren’t keeping the pests at bay, so Cambridge will likely expand composting pickup next year, officials said Monday .

“There’s only so much we can do to ultimately control our rodent population through attacking it. A lot of it is really just about supply of food,” city manager Yi-An Huang told city councillors. He said even the Smart Boxes that electrocute rats , which can cost $300 each per month, are more useful at showing where nests are concentrated than as actual population control, making education and prevention more important.

In addition to the Smart Boxes, over the last three years, the city added

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