diff --git a/backend/public/src/main.rs b/backend/public/src/main.rs
index d5e331f..8473f1d 100644
--- a/backend/public/src/main.rs
+++ b/backend/public/src/main.rs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::time::Duration;
 use tokio::net::TcpListener;
 use tokio::signal;
+use tower_governor::{governor::GovernorConfigBuilder, GovernorLayer};
 use tower_http::trace::{self, TraceLayer};
 use tracing_subscriber::{filter, layer::SubscriberExt, prelude::*, util::SubscriberInitExt};
 
@@ -54,18 +55,25 @@ async fn main() {
         )
         .init();
 
-    // tracing_subscriber::registry()
-    //     .with(
-    //         tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env().unwrap_or_else(|_| {
-    //             format!(
-    //                 "{}=debug,tower_http=debug,axum=trace",
-    //                 env!("CARGO_CRATE_NAME")
-    //             )
-    //             .into()
-    //         }),
-    //     )
-    //     .with(tracing_subscriber::fmt::layer())
-    //     .init();
+    if std::env::var("RUST_ENV").expect("development") != "development" {
+        println!("we're not in development, starting up the rate limiter");
+        let governor_conf = Arc::new(
+            GovernorConfigBuilder::default()
+                .per_second(2)
+                .burst_size(5)
+                .finish()
+                .unwrap(),
+        );
+
+        let governor_limiter = governor_conf.limiter().clone();
+        let interval = Duration::from_secs(60);
+        // a separate background task to clean up
+        std::thread::spawn(move || loop {
+            std::thread::sleep(interval);
+            tracing::info!("rate limiting storage size: {}", governor_limiter.len());
+            governor_limiter.retain_recent();
+        });
+    }
 
     // grabbing the database url from our env variables
     let db_connection_str = std::env::var("DATABASE_URL")