construction and efficacy assessment of rodent-proof walls in agricultural lands

Reducing Rodent Infestations in Agriculture with Rodent-Proof Constructions

Rodent damage is an important biological disaster that causes extensive damage to all aspects of human production and life1,2. In agriculture, rodent infestation of farmland damages crops3; in forestry, rodents eat tree seedlings, roots, bark, and plant seeds, leading to delayed forest regeneration and tree death, which in turn affects forest greening and sand fixation4; and in grasslands, rodents eat roots and seeds, leading to degradation of grassland vegetation and increased sanding, which affects the development of the grassland livestock industry5. In addition, rodents are hosts for many viruses, bacteria, and parasites that can seriously endanger human health6.
Dongting Lake, located in the northeastern region of Hunan Province, is an important water storage and flood-regulating lake in China7. It has many ecological functions, such as flood regulation and detention, biodiversity protection, and water resource supply8,9. In recent decades, there have been many rodent outbreaks in the Dongting Lake area, especially an outbreak of the reed vole Microtus fortis in 2007, which caused enormous economic losses10. During the dry season, M. fortis grows and breeds on the lake beach in the Dongting Lake area. As the water level in Dongting Lake rises during the summer flood season, the habitat of M. fortis shrinks, forcing it to migrate into the embankment by swimming, crossing the flood control embankment, and reaching nearby farmlands, causing great harm to agricultural production11,12. Chen et al. proposed a control measure for building a rodent-proof wall to block the migration pathway of M. fortis, based on the wave-retaining wall method jointly created by Jinpen Farm and Nanda Town in Yuanjiang City, both of which are located in Yiyang City, Hunan Province13,14. In dikes without rodent-proof walls, large numbers of M. fortis can cause devastating damage to crops during and after migration. Dikes without rodent-proof walls are typically manually trapped and drugged to exterminate rodents during and after they enter the farmland. In the case of dikes with rodent-proof walls, many rodents remain outside the dikes during M. fortis outbreaks. Thus, many trapping and elimination operations are carried out outside dikes; generally, farmlands do not need to implement chemical drugs or artificial trapping. This approach can significantly reduce the density of vermin without causing serious harm to farmland crops. Conventional rodent drug prevention methods cannot achieve the expected effects, and there are hidden dangers associated with environmental pollution and human and animal safety15. Considering the characteristics that allow rodents to easily break out and cause disaster, the following protocol introduces three physical rodent control methods, including a permanent rodent-proof wall and two kinds of temporary walls, and presents four statistical methods to measure rodent control effect, providing a scientific basis for rodent control. Instead of the traditional poisonous bait, the rodent-proof wall effectively protects the environment and safeguards the health of humans and animals; thus, it is a more effective and environmentally friendly control method that should be advocated and vigorously promoted.

Author Spotlight: Impact of Physical Barriers on Rodent Populations in Farmland Areas

Rodent-Proof Wall: An Efficient Physical Method for Controlling Rodents and its Efficiency Statistics

Rodent damage poses a significant threat to crops, human life, and the earth. Our study introduced one physical method, the rodent-proof wall, which is suitable to prevent rodents with migratory habits, such as Microtus fortis, in Dongting Lake area. They were migrates from the lake beach to farmland and that causes harm.Rodents are beneficial towards the ecosystem inside the lake beach, but they are harmful when they migrate towards the farmland. It is hard to find a way to control rodents in a central area without causing harm to other areas. The rodent-proof wall might be a good idea in Dongting Lake area.Building a rodent-proof wall can provide long-term protection. This means keeps the rodents contained with a certain area instead of killing them directly. This is friendly to the ecosystem and environment.In Dongting Lake area, the rodent-proof wall was transformed from the original wave-retaining wall, so the cost was low.

Construction and Efficacy Assessment of Rodent-Proof Walls in Agricultural Lands

construction-efficacy-assessment-rodent-proof-walls-agricultural

Research

JoVE Journal

Biology

Rodent damage poses a significant threat to crops, human life, and health. Compared to chemical rodent control, such as placing poisonous baits, it is more economical and environmentally friendly to use physical methods, such as building a rodent-proof wall. This study introduces a method of physically controlling harmful rodents and four methods of calculating the effect of rodents control. To understand the controlling effect of the rodent-proof wall, an investigation was conducted on the Dongting Lake beach and corresponding farmland in the embankment in April and July 2012. Our findings illustrated that the density of the reed vole Microtus fortis in the farmland with rodent-proof walls was 0.52%, significantly lower than that in the farmland without rodent-proof walls (1.76%) after artificial trapping and drug extermination (&#967;2 = 3.900, P = 0.048). The density of M. fortis that had migrated into the farmland in dikes with a rodent-proof wall decreased by 98.53%, significantly higher than the decrease of density in dikes without a rodent-proof wall (86.61%) (&#967;2 = 11.060, P = 0.01). The results demonstrated the effectiveness of rodent-proof wall control. Therefore, building a rodent-proof wall should be advocated and vigorously promoted to prevent the migration of rodents into the Dongting Lake area and similar environments, as they cause harm.

Here, we introduce three methods for the physical control of pest rodents, four methods for counting their effectiveness against rodents, and the statistics of the effect of building a rodent-proof wall.

Rodent damage poses a significant threat to crops, human life, and health. Compared to chemical rodent control, such as placing poisonous baits, it is ...