The war of the rodents in Cork

The wars of the rodents, like the Wars of the Roses, have been long drawn-out affairs. Nor do they show much sign of ending any time soon; a jihad against a newly arrived furry pest is underway in Cork, writes Richard Collins. 

When wheat and barley were domesticated in the East 11,000 years ago, mice began raiding grain stores and, as cereal farming spread westwards, so did the mice. We don’t know when the little rodents reached Ireland, but it seems they were here in Roman times. Mice dribble urine constantly as they move around and their droppings spread disease. Poisons, traps, cats and ultrasonic whistles have been deployed against them, to no avail.

Our next foreign invader was the so-called ‘black’ rat, which reached Ireland in the 10th Century. Today’s brown rats seldom enter homes but the black ones did; they even nested in bed clothes where people slept. When rats started to die in epidemics, their fleas moved onto people, carrying with them the bacterium responsible for the Black Death.