POPULATION MANAGEMENT of RODENT PESTS through INTENSIVE TRAPPING inside RURAL HOUSEHOLDS

• Main Authors: In Mozambique, S. R. Belmain, A. N. Meyer, L. Penicela, R. Xavier
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Rattus rattus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.504.6959; http://www.icup.org.uk/reports/ICUP247.pdf

Abstract Field trials involving seventy rural households from three villages in Mozambique were estab-lished to test whether intensive daily trapping inside household-level food stores could effectively reduce rodent pest populations. The main species caught inside dwellings where food was stored were Rattus rattus [alexandrinus], comprising 74.3 % of rodents caught over the year, followed by Mastomys natalensis (20.1%) and Saccostomus campestris (5.6%). Baseline surveys showed that households using 10 break-back traps caught an average of 1.2 ± 0.37 rats/day (mean ± sem). Annual trials whereby half of the selected dwellings in each village continuously trapped every day with 10 traps were able to reduce the number of rodents in their houses by 50–70 % compared to the non-treatment group of farmers who only trapped for three days every eight weeks. The population reduction caused by intensive trapping was main-tained over the remaining duration of the trial. Farmers who intensively trapped rodents (treatment group) caught an average 1.27 ± 0.43 rats/day, whereas non-treatment group farmers caught an average of 2.95 ± 0.71 rats/day. The number of rats and the ratio of species caught by treatment farmers varied over an annual cycle related to seasonal and anthropogenic factors. Variation in the number of rats caught among farmers intensively trapping within a village and variation among villages was significant, showing Morrumbala to have the highest rodent population density (2.7 ± 0.15 rats/day, mean ± sem) followed by Gurué (1.0 ± 0.14