Animals like rodents, arachnids, ants, and termites often invade human settlement areas. They are classified as pests. When they are out in their natural environment, they form a vital part of the natural ecosystem. They form part of the natural food chain. For example, rodents like rats and mice are food for birds like small eagles, owls, as well as foxes, wolves and other larger predators. They, in turn, eat grass seeds and fruits that have fallen off the trees in the forests.
Arachnids like scorpions fulfill a similar role in the natural world. They eat insects like spiders, flies, locusts and other insects. Several of the larger species of scorpions will also eat small lizards, mice, and even other scorpions.
The challenge comes when these animals’ natural environments are destroyed, and they are forced to move into human settlement areas to find food. This is when they become pests and need to be exterminated by a professional pest removal company like Responsible Pest Control Exterminators.
Therefore, the question that must be asked and answered is: Why are these animals moving out of their natural environment and into human settlement areas? There is no easy answer to this question. Therefore, by way of attempting to answer it, let’s consider the following points:
The destruction of natural habitats due to the expansion of human settlements
The global population numbers are increasing. Statistics show that an estimated 7.7 billion people were living on the earth in April 2019.
Wikipedia.com states that the “world population has experienced continuous growth following the Great Famine of 1315-1317 and the end of the Black Death in 1350.”
Additionally, there have been periods where the growth rate has been over 1.8% per year, and other periods where the global population growth rate has decreased to 1.2% per annum. However, irrespective of these figures, the global population figures are expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050.
Thus, it stands to reason that, in order to build homes for all these people to live in, humankind is encroaching on the natural habitats where these animals would generally live. Consequently, to survive, they are forced to move into these new human settlement areas.
The destruction of natural habitats due to severe weather events
There is an increase in the number of severe weather events as a result of climate change due to global warming. The most recent example and the most devastating is the latest Australian bush fires.
Succinctly stated, they burnt so hotly that they ended up causing their own severe weather in the nature of Pyrocumulonimbus storm clouds. These clouds were caused by the extreme heat generated by the burning fires. And, in turn, they helped spread the fires by creating dry thunderstorms with severe lightning that resulted in new fires being started.
There was so much smoke from all of these fires that it reached New Zealand, circa 1000 miles away from the fires. And, it is estimated that more than 1 billion mammals, birds, and reptiles lost their lives in the fires. No one will ever be able to quantify the number of animals lost in the fires accurately.
