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Nature 'fights back against pest control'
26/05/2009
The natural world is becoming increasingly resistant to manmade efforts to control it, according to an expert.
Professor Rob Smith of Huddersfield said this is particularly apparent in pest control, as some types of vermin are becoming immune to rat poison.
As a result, households and businesses which want to manage the local rodent population may be required to invest in electromagnetic pest control devices.
Speaking to the Halifax Courier, Professor Smith said: "Rats with mutations that protect against poison will live while other rats die and the protective, resistance mutation will be passed on to the next generation."
He added that in some parts of the country - the south of England in particular - most legal rat poisons no longer work.
Professor Smith said other methods of pest control, such as rat traps and guns, are proving to be inefficient.
This echoes similar warnings from the British Pest Control Association, which warned that an increase in the rat population could jeopardise public health.
