For decades, cities around the world have waged a war on rats. These pests can cause all sorts of havoc in urban environments. They are linked to a variety of diseases, can harm the mental health of city dwellers, damage infrastructure and be a death knell for local businesses. In sum, the cost of infestations can be great on the economy and health.
The “war on rats” has shown little progress, argues a study published last month in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. To get a handle on these crafty critters, the authors say we need to take a new approach that looks beyond the rats themselves to address wider community issues.
Michael Lee and his colleagues trawled thousands of studies dating back to the early 20th century to assess the effectiveness of the “war on rats” approach, at the University of British Columbia School of Population and ...
