One is never too far from a colony of rats and mice in big cities that are so densely populated. London and New York City being prime examples where they are even more in population than humans. Some can be docile and distant. Others, will not care and will gleefully play around with humans in background, as if to tease our intense dislike for the creatures. Still there are others, that will jump on top of a human's back and even bite viciously in defense. There are also some that will just open their gaping mouths to a human as if to exchange the intense fear and dislike both parties have for each other. Rats and mice will always dwell in company of humans. Perhaps, this is a natural part of their scavenging existence to come after all our rubbish that we so profusely throw away on a regular basis. Rubbish is plentiful in big cities. They also are a very disruptive creatures that will destroy everything in their way and spread disease in process. Some humans have even developed a strange fondness for them. One can emphatically agree that rats and mice can be a nightmare for a homeowner. In the time that rats and mice have been around, humans have yet to create an effective strategy of tackling them especially during a domestic infestation. We have so called commercial recipes and options. Some are not very long lasting or just ineffective. Others work well if used with traps. Traps are nasty business for most people. As they are nocturnal animals, one never knows what they are up to once they get access to our homes, while we are away or even asleep. Another, annoying experience for homeowners is the droppings which are highly toxic and hoovering only seems to spread the effects. They make cleaning around the house an utter nightmare as they spread their droppings on everything and can even at times shoot urine at person if they are in the vicinity. It is even worse for those individuals that have an allergic reaction. We as humans find ourselves at a quandary. Wherever humans go, the rats and mice sure to follow. It is almost like they are our savage night stalkers. But, surely our lives would be a lot easier if we just got rid of them, at least in a way that they do not invade our homes. A generally accepted way is to have a predatory animal, plug any open holes, keep the house clean, and poison bait as a long lasting remedy on rats or mice. But, even such methods can allow rats and mice to adapt to their surroundings. They have even adapted well to sonar repellers in cities which in fact attract them to homes. It can also be argued that homes that provide for an intense amount of repellers, poison, traps, and minty smells may actually be doing themselves a disservice. Rats and mice can probably learn to adapt to such risks and in fact realize that homes with so many preventative measures could only mean one thing - such homes have a lot of food at their disposal. The iRobot created a very successful way of cleaning the floor. Perhaps, we can extend the idea of a robot to act as a predator or communicator to the mice or rats in a continuously adaptive way. The robot should be able to learn from a rat or mouse behavior and take that into a feedback loop to ward them away. So, overtime a robot should always be looking for inputs from rat or mouse, to stay ahead of the game. Not all preventative methods work for pest control as such animals have adaptive practices and their own unique ways of handling human fear. And, though they are animals, they are curiously smart ones too. A robot is a smart beast as well that is engineered to do one thing and one thing only at its optimum potential. To eradicate rats and mice completely we would need to understand their nest sources, their local forging behavior, the patterns of behavior they display with humans as well as among themselves, and what types of preventative measures make them fear. There is even an approach to understanding degrees of fear in a fuzzy way to tabulate what is intense enough for one may not be intense enough for another. One could even adapt the robot using genetic algorithms and through reinforcement learning. Perhaps, the ideas of using autonomous robots could also work here as a way of pest control and eradication. Could one create a robot in form of a cat, rat, mouse, or even a snake? Unfortunately, pests in big cities are not just limited to rats and mice either. They can even be foxes, squirrels, insects, and the list could go on based on the city in question. In end, the humans take a backseat as they turn a war on pests, at least to the anticipation of striking a peace deal.
10 worst rat cites in the world
10 worst rat cites in the world
