Almost 25 of Daniel Cruz's 49 years have been dedicated to a job that very few New Yorkers are conscious of: cleaning up buildings and vacant lots to prevent the proliferation of rats.

He is the leader of a cleaning crew team in the pest-control office on the Lower East Side. Cruz came to New York from Santo Domingo in 1971.

Sometimes, the cleaning crew starts to work at 7:30 a.m. "We went to the site and start working right away," cleaning the exposed garbage. "Sometimes we find a lot of rats," he says.

The most difficult part of his job, Cruz says, is the cold weather. "You stay outside seven hours, maybe eight, and with a weather of 10 degrees or 15 degrees is not easy." And his only complaint is that the pay is not good enough. "We don't make the money we're supposed to," he says.

But, Cruz's job can also be dangerous. Sometimes they work around drug dealers and users. Also, fire is a possible hazard.

Rat bites are a risk too. Although neither Cruz nor anyone in his group has been bitten, the department of health reported 189 total rat bites in the city in 1998, 13 more than in 1997.

Once, Daniel Cruz's crew was working in City Hall. They opened the basement, without any idea that it was a double structure. "When we opened the second bottom it was full of rats." They found about 700 rats, some dead and some running scared. They killed the living rodents with poison and also by hitting them with a stick.

"This day was the most impressive for me," says Cruz.

Although sometimes they have to work in a difficult environment, some tenants are happy to get their services and they even send thank-you letters to the office. But there are also some people who don't like to see them around their neighborhoods. "Sometimes they've got a dirty business over there and they don't want nobody too see," says Cruz.

Daniel Cruz plans to retire soon. He's is almost 50 years old and is expecting to get his pension when he tuns 55. "I'll take my pension and go. You get tired of this job."

He says that he thinks many people still do not know what the pest control office does for the city. "Our job is in the background," and, he says. "They know about the rats but they don't know about us."

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