California cities are the most infiltrating rats in the United States
New York City was the highest award for the most rodent home, but two California cities also won the top ten on the infamous list.
FOX -LA
SAN FRANCISCO – Rodent expert Roger Baldwin has been researching less than one year on rat issues for most of his expanded missions at California Davis University.
Now, his calls continue to buzz with dozens of requests from farmers, journalists and others seeking his expertise amid an unprecedented phenomenon. It’s a massive rat attack on the state’s $4.7 billion almond industry.
This month, a newsletter from California’s Almond Commission said that invasions in parts of the San Joaquin Valley, one of the world’s top agricultural regions, affected more than 100,000 acres, causing losses of between $109 million and $311 million from losses of equipment and crops over a year.
A sudden invasion was astounded last fall, and they are still in a hurry to figure out how to fight off intruders, often turning to Baldwin for guidance.
“I have inquiries and questions about conducting interviews about rat control and seminars on rat control. Can I write an article about this?” Baldwin said.
And if you can’t find a solution, it can have a lot of meaning. California grows 100% of the country’s commercially produced almonds. It grows most of the almonds in the Central Valley, consisting of the San Joaquin Valley in the south and the Sacramento Valley in the north.
Abandoned fields may have spurred invasion
The state accounts for more than 75% of the world’s almond production, and exports 70% of its production to over 100 countries. India is a major customer.
There is no clear explanation as to why the large rats, which were a bigger problem in citrus orchards, unexpectedly developed the nutty tree flavor. However, Baldwin and others show three contributing factors.
Callaid Due to droughts and declining water supply, more than 500,000 acres of California farmland had not been planted in the early 2020s.
The drouth drought finally ended in the winter of 2022-23. This was the beginning of a three-year spell of at least average rainfall, enriching vegetation growth and wildlife food sources.
State restrictions on the use of cest pesticides have limited means by growers to remove rodents.
Those raiding the almond orchard include squirrels and deer mice, but the mice are the most destructive yet. Baldwin said he was told about farmers who spent hundreds and even thousands of dollars on rat control last year.
“At these levels, it’s extreme,” he said. “That’s a very significant cost.”
Major damage to irrigation equipment
Much of the damage occurs in the form of rats chewing irrigation equipment such as drip lines, sprinklers, and even electric wires that activate water pumps, sometimes causing fire.
Additionally, rats eat some of the almonds and “girdles” or bark gnaw, exposing and leaving the tree weakened.
“Damage to irrigation systems, equipment and other infrastructure within orchards is often greater than direct crop loss,” the ABC newsletter said. The ABC Newsletter collected some of the information from a survey published in February by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
The Almond Committee cited the example of a grower that costs $20,000 to replace a damaged drip irrigation system, and the example of a grower whose crop loss is 50% for rats.
The board said rats expanded their reach by moving alongside waterways such as irrigation pipes, making it difficult to track and contain rodents to dig holes under nut trees rather than nest them.
Roger Isom, president and CEO of Western Tree Nut Association, which represents growers and processors, appears to be spending the day in abandoned fields and vineyards where they still have nuts and grapes, still have nuts and grapes and can go to nut orchards.
The east banquet of almonds at the base of the tree
He was heading towards the end of the almond harvest, seeing the remains of one of their east feasts last fall. This usually lasts from August to mid-October.
“It was the base of a tree that branched out and it was their dining room,” he said.
ISOM said Baldwin was raised to conduct a seminar on comprehensive pest management strategies, and the state said it is providing training to farmers to obtain the certifications they need to perform fu steam in their burrows.
Other methods (rodent predators) have also been adopted, such as bait stations, snap traps and owl boxes, but farmers say the tactics are expensive and are not entirely effective against epidemics of this size.
The owl box shows promise, Isom said, but it’s too early to know how much damage the growers who are expected to be the second-largest almond harvest on record can limit.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Isom said of the rat invasion. “We had growners who lost more than half of their yield. This year’s crops are not going to know if it’s just weather-related or it’s due to rat damage. It certainly has an impact on the orchard. Hopefully we can get ahead of this and prevent it from becoming a big deal.”
