Are mice pests or vermin? A correct understanding of rodent damage in farmland
Mice are not pests, but they are one of the detested Four Pests. They are mammals that steal and eat grain, spread diseases, and damage farmland and woodland. So do you know what the Four Pests are? Let's find out below.
What are the Four Pests in our country?
Today's Four Pests are different from the former Four Pests. The original “Four Pests” referred to flies, mosquitoes, mice, and sparrows; the current “Four Pests” have replaced sparrows with cockroaches, so today's Four Pests are flies, mosquitoes, mice, and cockroaches.
How to control today's “Four Pests”?
1. Flies
Flies have the physiological trait that a single mating allows them to lay eggs for life. One female fly can lay eggs 5-6 times in her lifetime, with about 100-150 eggs each time, up to around 300 at most. They can reproduce 10-12 generations in a year.
Control: First, do a good job of environmental sanitation and keep the environment clean; remove garbage daily so it does not accumulate, and waste from special industries must be handled promptly; carry out harmless treatment of feces, popularize harmless toilets, and keep manure pit covers sealed; for breeding matter that cannot be thoroughly removed in time, apply organophosphorus insecticides to kill the larvae, treating once every 5-7 days in summer and autumn and once every 10-12 days in winter and spring.
2. Mice
Mice often appear in sewers, toilets, kitchens, and other places, moving back and forth between bacteria-carrying places and clean places, and spreading pathogenic bacteria via their feet, body hair, and stomach contents.
Control: Commonly used deratization methods include mechanical deratization and chemical deratization, such as mousetraps and mouse-catching iron cages; commonly used drugs include diphacinone sodium salt, zinc phosphide, brodifacoum, and others.
3. Mosquitoes
The average lifespan of mosquitoes is not long: females live 3-10 days and males live 10-20 days.
Control: Eliminating mosquitoes should address the root cause and clean up the source, that is, clearing the places where mosquitoes breed, supplemented by killing larvae to control the occurrence of mosquitoes. In summer, mosquito coils, mosquito-fumigating paper, and electric mosquito repellents can be used; installing mosquito nets, screen doors, and screen windows indoors can effectively prevent mosquito bites.
4. Cockroaches
Cockroaches are scavengers that prefer to hide by day and come out at night, living in crevices. They can withstand extreme heat and severe cold and are quite widely distributed.
Control: They can be caught and killed manually, such as by eliminating adults and larvae; during the day, cabinets and drawers can be cleaned out, and any seen can be caught and killed. Alternatively, spraying ant and cockroach poison, aerosol insecticides, pyrethroids, trichlorfon, and others is effective.
The places where the Four Pests often appear generally have poor sanitary conditions, so everyone must ensure that the home is clean, hygienic, and tidy to avoid the “Four Pests” causing trouble.