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Rodents

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Polyphagous Pests of Crops

Abstract

Rodents are the largest order under the class Mammalia with more than 2000 living species in 30 extant families and as high as 481 genera. Two-thirds of all living rodents belong to one single family, Muridae. Rodents are immensely diverse, ecologically, and they occupy any vacant places on Earth and eat anything. They are an important link in the food web and a number one vertebrate pest and also transform landscapes. Their adaptation is awesome; they adapt to any habitat, any food and any situation. Commensal rodents not only occupy the human habitation, causing economic losses to various stored products of human beings. They also act as vectors of numerous dreaded rodent-borne diseases in human beings. Rodent population dynamics depends on the availability of resources and environmental conditions. The assessment of rodent population in the wild is tricky as most of the pest rodents are nocturnal or subterranean. Pest rodents cause damage to agricultural crops, forestry, poultry industry, aviation and public health sectors. Being a mammal, rodents are extremely intelligent, and because of some limitation in their physiology, rodents are always suspicious. Neophobia and bait shyness are some of the traits which limit the use of rodenticides successfully. As one of the prolific breeders, rodents perform reproductive bounce after a successful control programme. Numerous management methods, viz. environmental, physical and chemical techniques, are being followed to contain the rodent population to a certain extent in a particular habitat.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to the Network Coordinating Centre, AINP on Vertebrate Pest Management (ICAR), CAZRI, Jodhpur, Co-coordinating Centre, AINPVPM, PJTSAU, Hyderabad and PIs of AINPVPM for their support and guidance and the Directorate of Research, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala, for providing all facilities to work on rodents at College of Horticulture, KAU Centre.

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  1. AINPVPM, Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Horticulture, KAU, Thrissur, Kerala, India

    Mani Chellappan

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Omkar

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Chellappan, M. (2021). Rodents. In: Omkar (eds) Polyphagous Pests of Crops. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8075-8_11

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