NYC deploying anti-rabies bait packets after disease hits five-year high

Finally, some garbage we want raccoons to rip into.

The city is using the trash panda’s love of human refuse to help vaccinate the woodland creatures from rabies — after cases of the deadly disease hit a five-year high.

The little mammals’ medicine comes in what looks like tiny ketchup packets of the kind commonly found in trash — and features a nasty, fishy smell that helps make them irresistible to the average hungry raccoon.

As they chow down on the pink liquid inside the packets, the tiny beasts ingest oral rabies vaccine and become immunized against the disease, which is a death sentence, city officials said.

“Rabies is a serious disease that can be fatal. The NYC Health Department’s efforts to vaccinate raccoons against rabies will protect New Yorkers, their pets, and the City’s wildlife,” Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse said in a statement.

At least 20 infections were recorded through September of this year — a 150% surge from last year’s total.

The city began doling out the rabies vaccines this week, and will continue to disperse them across Queens, Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan through November.

So far in 2025, 18 raccoons in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island have succumbed to the disease.

A cat from Staten Island and a bat from Queens also suffered the same fate.

The 20 total infections through September mark a 150% surge since last year, when just eight total infections were reported for the entire year.

The disease had been declining since 2021, when a shocking 19 infections were tallied, city data shows.

Almost all of this year’s rabies infections sprang up in Queens, with the hub centering in the southern portion of the borough between Rosedale and South Jamaica.

Staten Island had five infections of its own, which were scattered across the island.

Both of Brooklyn’s infections were reported in East New York.

Long Island has also been grappling with the problem, which officials ruled an “imminent public health threat.”

Brooklyn and Queens both underwent ORV baiting this spring, as well.

To quell the growing problem, the city DOH is littering the streets with small, brown colored and fish-scented packets tailor-made to attract hungry raccoons.

The packets are safe for other animals, including pets.

The city DOH could not immediately explain why Staten Island wasn’t expected to receive any of the vaccination measures, or why Upper Manhattan would instead — despite not reporting a rabies infection since 2023.

The Bronx is also not expected to receive any, but did not report any rabies infections this year.

Rabies is a fatal disease that targets its victims’ central nervous system, but is preventable and treatable up until a victim begins showing symptoms.

The most commonly known symptom of rabies is frothing at the mouth, but rabies is also known to cause unwarranted aggression in both people and animals, as well as nausea, confusion and the inability to eat or drink.

As the ORV bait planting continues through November, officials are warning New Yorkers to vaccinate their pets and to keep their distance from stray and wild animals.

If bitten by any strange animal, seek immediate medical attention.