Thousands of restaurants were closed in the United States because of the coronavirus. Due to the lack of the warm meals offered by the garbage, these animals entered a true way of survival. “They lived close to these establishments, perhaps generations of them, and depended on discarded food. This is no longer a reality. So the choices are limited ”.
Therefore, rodents go into real battles to kill hunger. In this process, cannibalism is a common option, as is the consumption of puppies. Therefore, those who survive will behave quite differently from what we are used to. “They are mammals like you and me. When we are very, very hungry, we don’t act the same way – and usually the reaction is very bad. So these rats are fighting each other, with adults killing the youngest in the nest and cannibalizing young, ”says Corrigan. And they are no longer so afraid to expose themselves, after all, they don’t have much to lose.
No panic needed (yet) It is difficult for hordes of hungry rodents to organize a collective invasion, but they will be increasingly present in cities if effective combat measures are not put in place. “Homeless people, for example, will be in serious trouble. So we must focus on this problem as soon as possible, ”says LaToya Cantrell, mayor of New Orleans. To try to contain a real plague of more aggressive mice, Washington’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has determined that pest control services are also essential, including the use of feral cats. And no less. In the past 30 days, about 500 calls have been recorded reporting incidents with the animals. In Baltimore, more than 300 requests for help occupied the city. In other words, it is not a coordinated attack, but a constant increase in problems related to them. “Rats are experts at detecting smells and anything related to food. They follow these molecules like heat-sensitive missiles and eventually reach their destination, ”says Corrigan. Knowing that they transmit diseases as dangerous as covid-19, we must be alert. Michael H. Parsons, a researcher at Fordham University, stresses the need for care: “We must not leave doors open for other diseases. If a mouse is infected with the coronavirus, the microorganism could mutate and become a much more dangerous pathogen ”.
