The ecology of the deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum de Geer

Dr Steven R. BelmainNatural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB, United KingdomT: +44 1624 883761; F: +44 1634 883379; E: S.R.Belmain@gre.ac.uk

Socio-economic tools for rodent management research: Recent experience from Africa and Asia

Dr Steven R. Belmain and colleaguesNatural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB, United KingdomT: +44 1624 883761; F: +44 1634 883379; E: S.R.Belmain@gre.ac.uk

The black box of social science

PhilosophyMathematical proofDeductive reasoningStatisticsEmpiricism

Physics Chemistry Biology Economics Sociology Political Science

Increasing complexity

Geography

Archaeology

Sociobiology Biological Anthropology

LinguisticsHistoryPsychology

Rodent Management will not work unless the Managers adequately understand the problem and its solutions in sufficient detail.

Tools and knowledge need to be appropriate

Rodent Managers

Everyone else – rural / urban settlements Farmers Households Communities

Qualified personnel – service providers Pest Control Operators Environmental Health Officers Agriculture Extensionists

Understanding the Manager

Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey Community meetings

Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey Community meetings Resource mapping / survey

Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey Community meetings Resource mapping / survey Individual meetings / questionnaires

Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey Community meetings Resource mapping / survey Individual meetings / questionnaires Observation

Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey Community meetings Resource mapping / survey Individual meetings / questionnaires Observation

It’s all about asking the right questions and interpreting the answers

Designing your survey

CultureGenderEducationLanguage

ConsultationPre-testingExperience

Actions (what) Timing (when) Where

Individual or community (Who)

Ecologically- based rodent management

Priority

1. Synchrony of cropping Planting/harvest Fields Community V High 2. Irrigation channel <30 cm All year Fields Community V High 3. Sanitation – keep grass growth low; clean around villages and rice stores

All year Fields & Houses

Individual V High

4. Kill traps; Live traps; pitfall traps (gourds, etc) †

1 week after transplanting

Houses Community High

5. Digging/flooding burrows † 1 week after transplanting

Fields Community High

6. Beating † 1 week after transplanting

Fields & Houses

Community High

7. Clean cultivation and harvest; manage straw stacks

Tillering and harvest Fields Individual High

8. Promote predators All year Fields & Houses

Community High

9. Lanirat (Bromadiolone) In upland habitats, edges of roads, etc., after land preparation (All crop stages)

Fields Houses (use kill traps instead)

Individual Medium

10. Zinc Phosphide As above (All crop stages)

Fields Houses (use kill traps instead)

Individual Medium

11. Line TBS Tillering and around harvest

Fields Community Test

12. CTBS Select crop Fields Community Test 13. Fumigate - Aluminium Phosphide Burning chilli

When rat numbers high Houses Individual Low

14. Smoking – chilli or tobacco

Dry season Fields & Houses

Individual Low

15. Predator symbol – banana tree like man; palm frond like cobra

All year Fields Individual Low

Crop calendar Province/Crop

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

Jakunipara - Comilla BORO Rice Seedbed 40

day Transplant Harvest

AUS Rice Seed Transplant Harvest T. AMAN Rice Seed Transplant Harvest Nov/Dec Vegetables Sowara - Comilla Rice as above Potato Brassicas Sowing Harvest Fallow Nasir Gram – Feni BORO Rice Seedbed 40

day Transplant Harvest

Fallow 2-3 months fallow because of floods T. AMAN Rice Seed *Seedbed 45d Transp Harv. Dec AUS Rice none Vegetables Vegetables – near houses Potatoes - staggered Province/Crop Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

Actions (what)

Timing (when)

Where

Who (Individual or community)

Cost Effective Environ Friendly

Priority

1. Lanirat (Bromadiolone)

When rat numbers high

Fields + houses

Individual 300-500 taka/yr

Yes No High

2. Kill traps As needed Houses Individual Cheap Yes Yes 3. Sanitation All year Houses

+ Fields Individual Nothing Yes Yes

4. Live traps; pitfall traps (gourds, etc)

All year Houses + Fields

Individual Cheap Yes Yes

5.Digging/flooding burrows

When rat numbers high

Fields Individual Nothing Yes Yes

6. Cats as predators All year Houses Individual Nothing Yes Yes 7. Zinc Phosphide Dry season

rat numbers high

Fields Individual Yes No ??

8. Burning chilli to fumigate

When rat numbers high

Houses Individual Cheap Yes No

Illiterate28%

Primary22%

Secondary34%

Graduate3%

Adult Education2%

Madrasa (Religious school)

8%

Higher Secondary3%

Farmer42%

Petty trade3%

Housewife35%

Other20%

Amount of cultivable land (decimals) % of total response 1-49 20 50-99 13.3 100-149 20 150-199 1.6 200 and above 15 Landless 30

Poison safety % of total response Safe 13.8 Not safe 82.8 Maybe 3.4 Non-response 0

Rodent effect on human health % of total response Health problems 55.9 No health problems 23.7 Maybe 5.1 Do not know 15.3 Non-response 0

Synthesising the dataDecision trees, Flow charts, Matrices, Problem-cause diagrams, Bayesian belief networks

Taken from: Aplin, K.A., Brown, P.R., Jacob, J., Krebs, C.J. and Grant R. Singleton (2003). Field methods for rodent studies in Asia and the Indo-Pacific. ACIAR Monograph 100; ACIAR, Canberra, AU. 223 pp.

Are there generalisations we can make about Rodent Managers?

• People like to see dead bodies• Poison should act fast• Underestimation of the damage caused • Limited microbiological knowledge • Anthropomorphism• “Trap shy dogma”• The technology gap

Just a bunch of surveys?

Participation of the Rodent Managers in their own KAP assessment

• Five farmers in a group• Male and female groups• Six groups in a village• Four villages• Group leaders to manage

• Meeting once a week• NGO staff to oversee process

Farmer Diaries

Farmer DiariesRecording information on time and money spent related to rodent damage, repairs and rodent management activities

Item Input Jakunipara n=73

Sowara n=45

Anandapur n=48

Sahapur n=42

House wall Cost (taka) 54.5 5.7 18.5 23.3 Repairing time (minutes) 622.8 203.4 419.2 284.6 House floor Cost (taka) 24.0 4.0 16.1 25.1 Repairing time (minutes) 518.2 215.1 272.2 208.9 Rice store Cost (taka) 35.5 19.2 73.4 124.4 Repairing time (minutes) 100.3 34.5 162.5 179.0 Basket Cost (taka) 21.9 22.2 30.2 35.8 Repairing time (minutes) 29.1 19.0 51.1 44.4 Furniture Cost (taka) 66.3 39.8 71.6 116.2 Repairing time (minutes) 35.0 27.1 105.7 110.2 Clothes Cost (taka) 113.5 116.8 109.6 110.0 Repairing time (minutes) 48.4 28.0 76.5 83.2

Intervention No intervention{ {

Item Input Jakunipara n=73

Sowara n=45

Anandapur n=48

Sahapur n=42

Home garden Cost (taka) 33.9 51.0 79.5 49.6 Repairing time (minutes) 22.8 15.7 138.1 33.6 Rice field Cost (taka) 43.4 12.7 140.1 136.2 Repairing time (minutes) 23.5 13.2 135.9 92.2 Vegetable field Cost (taka) 9.9 12.0 66.8 39.3 Repairing time (minutes) 14.6 12.8 127.2 36.4 Bunds Cost (taka) 28.4 14.5 16.0 19.2 Repairing time (minutes) 102.7 51.0 108.3 88.7 Irrigation canal Cost (taka) 1.4 4.7 17.1 6.5 Repairing time (minutes) 4.9 19.2 71.6 10.8 Other Cost (taka) 89.9 64.8 102.6 144.1 Repairing time (minutes) 34.4 24.8 91.7 59.5 Total cost (taka) 522.7 367.2 741.5 829.8 Total time (minutes) 1556.7 663.6 1760.0 1231.5

Intervention No intervention{ {

Farmer recorded costs of repair

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

House

wall

House

floor

Rice st

ore

Baske

t

Furnitu

re

Clothe

s

Home g

arden

Rice fie

ld

Vegeta

ble fie

ldBun

ds

Irriga

tion c

anal

Mea

n ho

useh

old

(n=1

00) e

xpen

ditu

re (T

aka)

Intervention villageNon-intervention village

Farmer recorded time spent to repair

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

House

wall

House

floor

Rice st

ore

Baske

t

Furnitu

re

Clothe

s

Home g

arden

Rice fie

ld

Vegeta

ble fie

ldBun

ds

Irriga

tion c

anal

Mea

n ho

useh

old

(n=1

00) t

ime

(min

utes

)

Intervention villageNon-intervention village

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

week

Per

cent

age

of h

ouse

hold

s un

derta

king

repa

ir

basketclothesrice storefurniturehouse damage

Households in Jakunipara (intervention village) involved in recording various repair activities within a farmer diary. Activities coincided with the commencement of village-wide intensive trapping of rodents

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

weekP

erce

ntag

e of

hou

seho

lds

unde

rtaki

ng re

pair

house repairbasketclothesrice storefurniture

Households in the village of Anandapur (non-intervention village) involved in recording various repair activities within a farmer diary

Activity Input Jakunipara n=73

Sowara n=45

Anandapur n=48

Sahapur n=42

Trapping houses Cost (taka) 78.5 82.9 0.0 0.0 Time (minutes) 2162.8 2094.9 0.0 0.0 Result (rats killed) 17.5 22.2 0.0 0.0 Trapping rice field Cost (taka) 2.5 5.0 0.0 0.0 Time (minutes) 65.8 88.0 0.0 0.0 Result (rats killed) 0.4 1.6 0.0 0.0 Trapping vegetable field Cost (taka) 1.5 4.5 0.0 0.0 Time (minutes) 72.8 82.2 0.0 0.0 Result (rats killed) 0.4 1.7 0.0 0.0 Flooding burrow Cost (taka) 0.2 0.0 1.5 2.9 Time (minutes) 37.0 57.6 66.4 91.9 Result (rats killed) 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.6 Digging (house/bund) Cost (taka) 2.9 2.0 8.3 5.5 Time (minutes) 57.1 54.6 76.2 64.1 Result (rats killed) 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.5 Cleaning house Cost (taka) 1.6 3.2 8.3 0.0 Time (minutes) 2644.9 3268.8 4927.2 5553.3 Result (rats killed) 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0

Intervention No intervention{ {

Activity Input Jakunipara n=73

Sowara n=45

Anandapur n=48

Sahapur n=42

Cleaning rice field/bund/canal Cost (taka) 49.9 45.3 65.7 69.5 Time (minutes) 280.2 520.0 639.8 561.7 Result (rats killed) 3.3 0.0 7.5 0.0 Cleaning vegetable field Cost (taka) 18.1 11.3 53.1 30.2 Time (minutes) 199.5 349.5 661.1 759.9 Result (rats killed) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Hunting Cost (taka) 4.2 6.2 3.9 1.3 Time (minutes) 27.9 177.8 60.8 36.1 Result (rats killed) 0.9 0.5 1.3 0.9 Lanirat (chronic poison) Cost (taka) 1.2 1.3 4.9 0.8 Time (minutes) 16.7 10.4 62.6 21.4 Result (rats killed) 0.6 0.9 3.1 1.5 Zinc Phosphide (acute poison) Cost (taka) 0.8 0.9 11.8 7.4 Time (minutes) 0.7 1.4 32.8 11.1 Result (rats killed) 0.0 0.1 0.5 0.0 Total cost (taka) 161.5 162.7 157.5 117.6 Total time (minutes) 5565.3 6705.2 6527.0 7099.5 Total result (rats killed) 23.7 27.9 13.6 3.6

Intervention No intervention{ {

Tracking tiles as a socio-economic tool

Tracking tiles as a socio-economic tool

Rodents are too clever to be controlled and become trap shy / poison shy

Tracking tiles as a socio-economic tool

• Allows easy understanding of changes in rodent population dynamics

• Reduces need for dead bodies

• Efficacy of chronic poisons observed

• Encourages monitoring & evaluation

Yes“New” management technology can

• Inform the research process• Educate rodent managers• Change human behaviour

Future challenges for the social sciences in rodent management

research

Human behaviour and disease

Social stigmas and family decision making processes – late treatment

Self-medication with inappropriate treatments

Community cohesion levels - acceptance, apathy, dependence

Social conservatism – traditional treatments and behaviour

Damage remains hidden, impact on people’s lives is unclear, economic cost is unknown

Disease mechanisms and transmission

Witchcraft and traditional medicine• Belief in witchcraft, and that illnesses

are derived from bad luck, spells and curses is widespread throughout many countries

• Traditional healers can have supernatural powers (for good and bad) through spells and potions that go beyond their administering of herbal remedies to the sick.

• Rats are implicated in the spread of witchcraft in many cultures. Because rats are fast, they are believed to be used to bewitch others and make them ill - as a vessel of the curse sent by the witch.

Traditional beliefs of hygiene can vary among cultures and differ from modern scientific views, e.g. internal dirt, not external dirt

Emphasis on tidiness rather than removal of environmental dirt

Among young hygiene may relate to keeping one’s body clean and among older people to keeping a tidy kitchen

Food and water borne diseases – e.g. river water always clean, wild animals are clean

Rats, Hygiene and Sanitation

Concepts and socio-economics of disease

Thanks to all my collaborators

and

Thank You for listening