Eat those pests!

Food is important, food keeps us going… Well, let us see what the news had to say about this.

I had posted a link here earlier, but I still find it amazing that agricultural pest control threatens a famous local Brazilian delicacy: Ants! The Alates ( or swarmers) are considered a big delicacy and become increasingly rare. Personally I would be very interested in tasting some of these ants. Supposedly they taste like mint, yummy. Saves the money on chewing gum and candies, ha ha ha.

Insects as a solution to solve the global hunger problem and to reduce green house gas emissions? It seems to be possible and this was published this week. Insects produce less wastage and by-products compared to cows, pigs and other ‘more common’ livestock. Plus the food input is comparatively low and I remember I read somewhere that insect proteins are easier to digest for humans. Well then, instead of a nice steak, we might soon have a few barbequed grasshopper legs, medium to rare, please…

Imagine a 20 pound rat, baked in the oven, maybe for Christmas? Delicious? Not so sure about that, but in Cameroon there are farms that breed the giant cane rat. These are huge rodents, the size of a small sized dog, so I guess it makes sense having these as a food source. I was of the opinion that our Indian bandicoot rats are huge, but there always seems to be an even larger pest. Just give it a fancy name, “Rongeur giant au vin”, and you will have a lot of people in front of your restaurant. Well, not if Rentokil comes round for some serious rodent control.

Eat those humans!

Ok, shall we turn around the perspective of eater vs. eaten? January had quite an arrangement of odd “pests attacking humans” stories as well. Let’s start with the most disturbing ones.

A New York prisoner got bitten into his very private parts by a rat. This is by far the most disturbing rat bite case that I heard of. Then there was the case of the woman who died after her toes had been eaten by rodents. It seems that this year the rodents plan to fight back. Well, we are prepared to control them.

There also was a report about children that found a Chihuahua being eaten by ants. I think since the dog had obviously been mistreated and was not able to stand, nor walk. I also guess that the ants were rather attacking if it was in the close proximity of the nest, than actually trying to eat it.

And then there was the viral video about a loose rat in New York’s subway. My learning from this incident? Never, never ever, sleep on a subway. Why? Because there are mad rats that run up your legs and come running into your face. This is something I would not even wish to my worst enemies.

A few days later I found an article that guesstimates the number of rodents on Bangalore express trains to be around 4,000. I have seen rats on trains and I have also seen the amount of food, crumbs, garbage and spillages that is produced during a 10-20 hour train rides. It is not a surprise that rodents and other pests are attracted to train rides. In this case, it would be good if the passengers would also be made aware that their eating habits are a major part of the rat problem on trains.

Which finally brings me to some better news: The city of Mumbai has its own rodent killer task force. Within the last year, 44 night catchers and another 140 day catchers have killed more than 310,000 rats. However they still require more hands to somehow control the menace of rodents.

So much about the pest news for the last three weeks, hope I do not have to write too soon about similar news

Rat bites in ‘private’ parts, human eating pests and vice versa is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

I heard of Bamboo flowering as a major event for the first time, when I talked to a wildlife guard in Nagarhole National Park. We talked about elephants, and how they sometimes can become a problem for farmers, raiding their fields for crops, when the guard mentioned that these incidents would increase over the next few years, as the bamboo flower had started.

Bamboo flower? Elephants? I was quite puzzled. He explained that one of the main food sources of elephants is the giant Bamboo, and that this species of bamboo flowers every 40-50 years all over India at the same time. After flowering and producing incredible amounts of seeds, all plants die. Hence the elephants starve and start looking for alternative food sources and become a nuisance for farmers.

The second time I heard of the bamboo flower was while travelling in Kerala, where I purchased some bamboo rice, supposedly at best a natural aphrodisiac, but healthy at the least. Quite costly though, and quite tasty. While negotiating the price I watched a group of monkeys plucking the seeds of the bamboo plants. They looked fat and healthy. Convinced me to purchase the bamboo rice.

Pic credit: Benjamin Harink

Happy monkeys, hungry elephants, what else? Well there is an even more dramatic and tragic connection between rats and the bamboo flower. The amount of seeds produced by a single bamboo plant is immense and feeds a number of animals, among all others rodents seem to profit a lot from the bamboo flower. The Eastern regions of India, especially the state of Mizoram are, to a large extent, covered with giant bamboo (Melcocanna baccifera). On the one hand, this bamboo provides building materials, tools and even food (remember the bamboo shoots, you might have come across in a Chinese restaurant?) to the locals, on the other hand, once it starts flowering it initiates a dangerous chain reaction.

Once the bamboo bears fruit, millions of bandicoot rats (in this case mainly: Bandicota savilei) are attracted by the bounty of this easily accessible source of protein. They do what they are best at; eat and breed. Considering that these rats can produce a litter every three weeks and baby rats can reach maturity within 50 – 60 days, the numbers of rodents reach huge numbers within a short period.

The problem that arises from this fast multiplication is that even though bamboo seed resources are vast, they are limited. Once everything is finished, hungry rats come out of the bamboo forest and raid the farmers’ fields. Since there are millions of them, there is no remorse and everything is consumed, leaving the farmers and their families starving. Local administration tried to fight the army of rodents, offering the equivalent of USD 2.50 for every 100 rats killed. When the bamboo flowering started, villagers killed around 500,000 rodents a year; 2 years later in the peak of the bamboo flower they already killed 2.5 million rats per year.

However, even by killing 2.5 million of rats, it is still not possible to prevent multitude of rats from marauding the fields; they leave nothing for the farmers. In the past there have been major famines caused by the flood of rats subsequently to bamboo flowering. This time the local government has taken provisions to store more food in rodent-proof warehouses to prevent another famine. According to a BBC report pest control measures are largely un-coordinated and on an individual scale, hence not sufficient. Preparation and an integrated approach will be the solution to prevent the next army of marauding rodents, in a few decades.

Driving through National parks, and seeing the dead bamboo is a somewhat depressing sight. It will take a few years for new plants to grow to the imposing size of their parents. By the way, did you know that the aphids on the giant bamboo are very large and the food source for the largest ladybug in the world?

Spanish Translation

Bambú y Ratas – Flores y Hambruna

Los términos “bambú”, “ratas”, “flor” y “hambruna” no parecen tener mucha conexión entre ellos. Sin embargo, cada cincuenta años más o menos, la conexión entre estas palabras se hace más que evidente en India.

La primera vez que oí hablar del florecimiento del bambú como un gran acontecimiento fue cuando hablé con el guarda de los animales silvestres del Parque Nacional de Nagarhole. Empezamos a hablar sobre los elefantes y sobre cómo a veces pueden llegar a ser un problema para los granjeros, arrasando las cosechas para alimentarse, y entonces el guarda me contó que en los próximos años se espera que aumente este tipo de incidentes, ya que el bambú ha empezado a florecer.

¿Flor del bambú? ¿Elefantes? No entendía nada. Entonces el guarda me explicó que una de las mayores fuentes de alimentos para los elefantes es el bambú gigante, y que esta especie florece cada 40 ó 50 años en toda India al mismo tiempo. Después de florecer y de producir una cantidad enorme de semillas, todas las plantas mueren. Por tanto, los elefantes empiezan a tener mucha hambre y buscan otras fuentes de comida alternativas, convirtiéndose en un problema para los granjeros.

La segunda vez que oí hablar de la flor del bambú fue durante un viaje a Kerala. Allí compré arroz de bambú, que no sólo es considerado como un afrodisíaco natural, sino que además es muy sano. Muy caro, pero muy sabroso. Mientras negociaba el precio vi un grupo de monos arrancando las semillas de las plantas de bambú. Los monos estaban gordos y parecían sanos, así que eso me terminó de convencer para comprar el arroz de bambú.

Monos felices, elefantes hambrientos, ¿qué más? Bueno, hay una conexión más dramática  y trágica todavía entre las ratas y la flor de bambú. La cantidad de semillas que produce una sola planta de bambú es inmensa, y sirve para alimentar a numerosos animales, entre ellos los roedores, que parecen disfrutar mucho con la flor del bambú. Las zonas orientales de India, especialmente el Estado de Mizoram, están casi completamente cubiertos por bambú gigante (Melcocanna baccifera). Por una parte, este bambú también les proporciona materiales de construcción, herramientas e incluso comida (acordaos de los brotes de bambú, seguramente los hayáis visto en los restaurantes chinos), aunque por otra parte, cuando empieza a florecer, comienza una peligrosa reacción en cadena.

Una vez que el bambú produce la fruta, millones de ratas bandicoot (en este caso especialmente  Bandicota savilei) son atraídas por esta fuente de proteínas tan fácilmente accesible. Hacen lo que mejor se les da hacer: comer y reproducirse. Teniendo en cuenta que estas ratas pueden dar a luz crías cada tres semanas y que las crías de rata alcanzan la madurez en 50 ó 60 días, el número de roedores se multiplica por miles en poco tiempo.

El problema de esta rápida multiplicación de ratas es que aunque los recursos de semillas de bambú son grandes, son también limitados. Una vez que se acaban las existencias, las ratas hambrientas dejan el bosque de bambú y arrasan los campos de los granjeros. Los millones de ratas no sienten remordimiento alguno, y arrasan con todo lo que encuentran, dejando a los granjeros y a sus familias muertos de hambre. Las administraciones locales han intentado luchar con este ejército de roedores, ofreciendo el equivalente a 2,5 dólares americanos por cada 100 ratas matadas. Cuando empezó el florecimiento del bambú empezó, los habitantes de los pueblos mataban alrededor de 500.000 roedores al año, dos años más tarde, en temporada alta de flor del bambú, esta cifra ha llegado a 2,5 millones de ratas al año.

Sin embargo, incluso matando 2,5 millones de ratas, no es posible evitar que un montón de ratas merodeen los campos; no dejan nada para los granjeros. En el pasado ha habido grandes hambrunas provocadas por la avalancha de ratas derivadas del florecimiento del bambú. Esta vez el la administración local ha tomado precauciones almacenando más comida en almacenes a prueba de roedores para evitar otra hambruna. Según un informe de la BBC las medidas de control de plagas no están coordinadas y sólo se hacen a escala individual, y por tanto son insuficientes. La preparación y un enfoque integrado serán la solución para evitar el siguiente ejército de roedores merodeadores en las siguientes décadas.

Conducir a través de parques nacionales y ver el bambú muerto es de alguna manera un paisaje deprimente. Harán falta algunos años para que las nuevas plantas lleguen a alcanzar el imponente tamaño de las anteriores. Por cierto, sabíais que los áfidos del bambú gigante son muy grandes y una gran fuente de alimento para la mayor mariquita del mundo?

Of Bamboo and Rats – Flowers and Famines is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Since travel guide books always give you an extensive list of places to see and things to do (which let’s face it thousands of other people will also see and do), I thought it would be a novel idea to give you my top 5 list of pests to see or experience (not a trip for the faint hearted though if you see them all at once) to make your holiday an unforgettable event.

Trust me, your audience at home will appreciate the extra effort in making the photo-reviewing evenings more interesting by adding some horror to paradise. And yes, I am sharing my first hand experiences with you, and yes they involved a lot of pain and itching.

Maybe a cliché, but listening to travelers it always seems there is an endless collection of horror stories with only one lead role: Cockroaches. I am sure your holiday would be much more peaceful without them (and your risk of food poisoning and other diseases as well). On the other hand there would be less opportunity to scare people at home without them. At best you can create the image of you being a fearless adventurer, because out of the whole group YOU were the only person who took the shoe and killed the offender.

You will be able to discover the local varieties of mosquitoes almost anywhere. But be aware, as with all wild animals there is a need to be alert: Some of these critters might be able to transmit some nasty diseases, such as Malaria, Dengue or Chikungunya. So my advice would be to skip searching for this pest. Anyway, you won’t have much searching to do, as they will for sure find you. In this case though, my advice would be that having almost died of a mosquito-borne disease is too much effort for making your holiday stories more interesting.

Everywhere else known as peaceful pollinators and producers of honey, the local variety of bees (Rock bees), build large nests, preferably on high trees, or on buildings, where they create a lot of trouble for people living on the other side of the windows. They should not be considered as general pests, but definitely do their part in troubling people on the higher levels of buildings.

The urban legends of the giant sewer rat will become truth once you lay your eyes on the secretive, yet common, Bandicoot rat. Best chances to see them are within human settlements and especially at night. Be aware though, they are fierce attackers if cornered (see my first post). Another similar “nice” surprise is the local roof-rats, who can scare you out of your wits with their noises inside a jungle hut at night.

For those of you who think bed bugs are some myth from ancient times, well here is the “good” news, they are still alive and kicking. Try for some very low budget hotel, or travel a lot with overnight busses, and you might be able to spot some of these elusive animals. However, most pest experts will assure you that you have a higher likeability of getting bitten than actually seeing them, which makes actual sightings an exciting photo opportunity to show friends at home. However, due to unknown reasons this pest has managed to increase its geographical reach over the last few years, which might depreciate their value as a holiday experience. And if you are not careful enough, who knows maybe they will travel in your luggage.

Ah, and then there are always fleas, ticks, pigeons and numerous other pests, but the ones I mentioned above should be enough to start with. If you want to go pro, check the pest guides and I am sure you will find more interesting pests.

I have to admit though, that working for Rentokil and the knowledge that all these pests can be controlled, really reduced my fears of involuntarily introducing these pests to my home after some extensive travelling.

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Take a look at these other deBugged lists:
Top 10 unbelievable truths
Top 10 pest urban myths
9 lessons I learnt putting together a blog
Top 5 movies Rentokil would have ruined because its infestation not entertainment

Pest Travel Guide Or How To Spice Up Your Holiday Stories is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Luckily, my friend came soon after this and picked me up and I forgot about the monster-rats. However, when I kept seeing them from time to time in different places, I figured that they must be some more common Indian/Asian giant rat species. Some web-research identified these giants as Bandicoot rats. Bandicoot rats are larger than usual rats; they can get as large as 40 cm and as heavy as 2.2 pounds. They are found mainly in South Asia, and there are a few species under that genus. Their name derives from the Telugu word “Pandikokku”, which translates loosely into “pig rat”.  Telugu is the language of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

In terms of the aggressive sewer rat legend, these rats are known to be more aggressive than their smaller relatives, especially when threatened. They emit pig-like grunting when attacking, hence the name of “pig-rat”. According to Wikipedia, packs of the lesser bandicoot rat have attacked and devoured small children that were left alone, although this could just be another urban legend about pests.

I was totally unaware of the existence of these giants, and am quite sure that most people are. However, should you ever get the opportunity to travel to South Asia, be prepared to be shocked (if you are scared of rodents) or to be surprised (if you don’t mind seeing rodents). From a pest control perspective (where I now work for Rentokil India), I would definitely rank bandicoot rats among the top 5 pests to see when in South Asia, even though I am sure not many people would be interested in a pest-travel guide.

Giant Sewer Rat – Urban Legend or Reality? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog