Many New Yorkers predicted Hurricane Sandy would drown thousands of subway rats, but instead the rodents were pushed to higher ground and are infesting neighbourhoods that didn't previously have problems.

"It's an ongoing battle," exterminator Manuel Medina told Carol Off, host of CBC Radio's As It Happens.

"It was bad before [Sandy], but even worse now,"

He said one Chinatown-area park looks like a game of "Whack-a-mole," and has even spotted rats scurrying along the same sidewalks as people heading to work.