THE VERMIN ARMY

Toronto isn't ready to deal with its rodent invasion. I went to New York City's rat academy to find out if there's any hope

- AMY DEMPSEY RAVEN

Bobby Corrigan, a world-renowned rat expert, grew up in Brooklyn reading mystery novels. He dreamed of being a detective, but instead used his sleuthing instincts and science credentials to become the Sherlock Holmes of rodent control.

One morning this spring, Corrigan, 73, stood in a small auditorium inside New York City's health department. The room was churchlike, with high ceilings, wood-panelled walls and frosted glass windows. Looming behind him, projected on a large screen above a wooden stage, was a whiskered rodent with a long naked tail.

"If you don't know why there's a rat on the screen," Corrigan said, "you're in the wrong place."

This was his way of welcoming 28 new students to Rat Academy, a city-run training program that he calls "rodent boot camp."

Corrigan, a trim, balding man with a Brooklyn accent, frameless spectacles and a wry smile, has been the school's lead instructor since it launched in 2005.

Rat Academy is a school for pest management professionals, public health workers and the vermin-curious. Formally called Rodent Academy, the program covers mice, too, but focuses on the pest that lives large in our cities and our nightmares: the urban rat. This year's agenda includes a Rat Safari, a presentation on "The Secret Lives of Rodents" and a visit from New York's infamous "Rat Czar."

The students are scattered throughout in the room squeaky leather chairs, each holding a dictionary-sized binder of learning materials. Among them are thick-armed pest control technicians with tales from the field; neatly dressed policy experts; health and safety managers from the world's biggest food manufacturers; and about a dozen New York City pest management employees who work to keep rodents out of parks, restaurants and schools.