Why
control rodents?
| Type
of impact |
Impact |
| Physical |
Destruction of insulation. Many livestock
management and machinery storage facilities
show serious deterioration within 5
years. Associated with this damage are
costs for re-insulation, replacement,
increased energy costs and poorer feed
conversions by animals. |
| Spoilage |
Contaminated feed. A rat produces 25,000
droppings per year, a mouse 17,000. |
| Lost
production |
A single rat will eat, spoil or damage
$25 worth of grain per year. Small populations
of up to 70 mice per hectare can cause
between 2-9% reduction in yield. 200
mice eat the equivalent amount of feed
as one sheep. |
| Disease |
Rodents are recognised as carriers of
approximately 45 diseases. |
Rats are carriers of diseases via fleas (foot-and-mouth
disease, typhus, plague, etc). They cause
enormous damage by gnawing on doors, woodwork,
beams, electrical wires and pipelines.
Mice can transmit a number of diseases to
humans and livestock including:
•
salmonella to humans and domestic animals
• encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus to
pigs
• leptospirosis to humans,
dairy cattle and domestic pigs
•
tapeworms, roundworms and fungal skin diseases
(ringworm) to cats and humans.
Mouse droppings can also cause bacterial poisoning
of human and livestock foods.
The damage caused by plagues of mice is enormous.
They will attack virtually all cereal and
grain crops, plus many vegetables and fruits.
It should be stressed that a mouse plague,
while it may arise from seasonally variable
conditions, is not necessarily limited to
a season's duration. Plagues have been known
to last through a mild winter into the following
growing year. The damage from plagues can
then run into millions of dollars. |
|
