It's time to call in the Pied Piper... New Yorkers say rats are taking over their city.

The number of complaints lodged about the rodents has increased.

According to the New York City mayor's office, there were more than 24,00 complaints loged earlier this week. That's up from about 20,000 in 2014 and around 19,000 in 2013.

But rats taking a bite out of the big apple is nothing new. 

"I think the department of health needs to plan better, we need new strategies to combat rats. Look, they're everywhere, they're in cities across the world so this is nothing new. But we can't use old think to solve these new problems," said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Residents agree, more needs to be done, especially when it comes to picking up garbage. 

The city's health department say they're spending about $2.9 million dollars on a program to eradicate "rat reservoirs," by attacking their colonies in parks, subways and sewers.