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In Sheridan, like any other place, you can easily find rodents such as mice or rats around houses. Rodents are estimated to be the most devastating pests of crops and livestock production throughout the world.
These animals give birth to many offspring and are also able to live and thrive in different environments, making them a permanent menace, especially in areas where agriculture is practiced as the main economic activity.
The cost that comes with rodent infestation in agriculture is enormous, and its impact is reflected in the quality, quantity, and yields of the produce and animals’ health and well-being. Furthermore, rodents are carriers of many diseases, which are even worse as far as food security and human health are concerned.
To achieve sustainable agriculture, it is essential to know the extent of the harm these pests cause, together with the ways to minimize their impact. Sheridan pest control services can help in case of rodent infestation.
How do rodents impact crops?
Rodents are very capable of causing massive damage if not taken care of on time; some of the destruction caused by these little creatures is discussed below:
1. Direct Consumption and Destruction caused:
Rats and mice, for example, take even more significant proportions of crops as food, hence leading to low production. They feed on seeds, grains, fruits, and vegetables, most especially on grains and fruits when stored, as well as fruits and vegetables when being harvested.
They are also known to have an inclination to nib on roots and stems, and this is sure to kill plants even before they reach reproductive age.
2. Post-Harvest Losses:
Most of the impacts of rodents on agriculture are realized after the harvest has been done. They invade stored foods, chiefly grains, and contaminate the remaining food with their droppings and urine, thus making it unfit for human consumption as well as sale in the market.
3. Rodents Impact on Food Security:
In subsistence farming countries, especially where the storage of produce is vital for most families, the effects of rodents are cataclysmic. Whole food shops can be wiped out, leaving the populations of one’s community at the mercy of famines.
4. Economic Losses by rodents:
Rodent damage to crops has many financial implications, such as farmers losing their income, increased cost of pest removal, and the loss of farm produce locally or internationally.
How do rodents impact livestock?
Rodents are not only responsible for damages but are also capable of spreading various diseases; let us have a more detailed look at this:
1. Rodents transmit different diseases:
Rodents are potential disease vectors that impact the performance of livestock through diseases such as leptospirosis, salmonellosis, and plague. The illnesses are easily transmittable from one animal to another, making them fall sick or die, which is a significant setback in livestock rearing.
2. Capable of contaminating of feed and water:
Rodents are known to search for food and water sources in livestock farms and enter them in search of these two essential elements. They defile animals’ feed with their excreta, which results in the spread of diseases and poor-quality feed, hence affecting the health and production of the animals.
3. They cause structural damage to farms:
Rodents scrape along force structures within the farm, such as wiring, water pipes, and storage structures. This not only causes a lot of damage that would require extra cost to repair but also leads to compromise of the safety and health of the animals, which are the livestock.
Save your crops by reaching out to a pest control company!
Rodents’ effects on agriculture are, in one way or the other, ranging from impact on crops and livestock. Rodent control measures, better structures in stores, and diseases in general also require attention in order to reduce the effect that these creatures exercise on the production capacity of agriculture. Pest control services in Sheridan can take care of this.
