At the tail end of March 2020, the UK was plunged into conditions none of us have seen in our lifetime. Most of us in the pest and infection control sector saw the Covid-19 pandemic developing and started to make plans for the times ahead. As a company we recalled overseas staff to the UK and reverted to remote working systems.
With the aims of reducing transmission of the Sars-Cov2 virus, governments around the globe restricted the movement of people and closed non-essential businesses to the public.
Effectively with a single press conference on the 23rd March almost all UK companies were forced to activate their business continuity plans and react as if their place of business had burnt down.
Companies in every sector are affected with most commercial property either left empty or with greatly reduced occupancy and usage. It has been widely reported that these buildings have become a perfect habitat for many types of pest and that pests are running rampant in our cities; however, the impact of removing most human activity from large areas of our environment on pest activity has been more profound and is closer to a process of re-naturalisation.
Merlin Environmental are dedicated in providing knowledgeable thorough and informative approach for both customers and the pest control industry as a whole, to help increase a better understanding of arising issues. With our scientific approach to the way we control, assess and record pest activity and new control measures of pest species, the Merlin team have taken the additional time given by the global Sars-Cov2 (COVID-19) virus to create a series of informative blogs to better understand the fall out of such sudden changes. Using new and existing data as well as known behavioural cycles, the series of blogs will detail and explain the current changes and growing concerns relating to the activities and infestation levels set to occur across the UK during COVID-19 measures.
Rats
Through the first 3 months of the Lockdown, rat population dynamics were very unstable. The rapid withdrawal of their main food source, the waste from human excess, caused scenes of mass migration of rats. Rats driven by hunger could be seen openly walking the streets during day light, this phenomenon was reported around the world with quite spectacular scenes filmed in USA.
As the primary food source was exhausted rats migrated into buildings abandoned by humans due to Covid-19. These food reserves were soon exhausted or cleaned away during lockdown cleans. There were reports of rapidly developing rat infestations whereby many rats would breach a building in large numbers then disappear as quickly as they arrived. In population dynamics terminology this behaviour is called questing and is triggered by the drive to find new more favourable territory and feeding opportunities. All animals make decisions based on a balance of risk to reward the Covid-19 pandemic removed almost all risk to the questing activity so this behaviour could be observed in its purest form in an urban environment during this time.
During the second 3 months of the UK pandemic restrictions, Rat populations stabilised to a more natural level. Breeding behaviour that had all but ceased during the first three months of lockdown recommenced and rat populations started to grow again. This coincided with the lifting of some of the covid-19 restrictions to the hospitality sector so more foraging opportunities were available to the growing population. Rats really enjoyed the eat out to help out promotion!
The rapidly evolving and unstable outlook for the months ahead particularly when viewed alongside the seasonal winter spike in rat activity caused by the loss of natural forage highlights the need for regular and thorough pest control inspections during the Covid-19 pandemic.
