Rodent mece

Farmers in Chi’s Gansu province are passing sleepless nights. Their harvests should have been ripening in the fields, had it not been for the rodents. Countless rats, moles and marmots are running amok in their fields, gwing through crops in no time. They can dig holes 100 cm in diameter within 20 minutes, leaving pastures dotted with large, ugly mounds. Often the damage done is irreparable, alarming agriculture and forestry officials. Earlier too, such rodent pestilences have visited the region. Irritated locals used rat poison, but that put other animals and birds at risk. This time around, a smarter combition of biological control and traditiol methods is being used to combat the rodent mece. Hawks have been drafted in this battle to take out the rats. Farmers are erecting tall wooden poles in the fields for the hawks to take better aim at their prey from a height, or to rest from their labours. Locals have also been encouraged to take up their traditiol bows and arrows to fight rats. Industrious hunters are dispatching about 50 rodents a day. They have also fashioned a trap which shoots out tiny arrows whenever a rat touches it. Environmentalists are also happy that these methods are not damaging the ecology, though they are advising that an average of 22 rodents each hectare should be left alive to maintain an ideal biological chain. 

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