Tag Archives: vermin

Rookes, Crowes and Choughes

Posted on October 31, 2013 by argylesock

Originally posted on The Naturephile:
‘If men had wings and black feathers, few of them would ever be clever enough to be crows’ Henry Ward Beecher Clergyman, wit and abolitionist I’m incarcerated at home at the moment, having been laid…

Posted in agriculture, ecology | Tagged bird, bird of prey, carrion crow, chough, conservation, corvid, food security, history, hunting, land use, law, pest, predator, raptor, red kite, rook, shooting, vermin, vertebrate, wildlife | 4 Comments

Has the red kite become a pest?

Posted on October 30, 2013 by argylesock

Here in Britain the red kite (Milvus milvus) was hunted almost to extinction. In the 16th century it was classed as vermin, supposedly a threat to agriculture. A few centuries later, along came gamekeepers whose job was (and still is) … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology | Tagged bird, bird of prey, child, conservation, earthworm, game, history, livestock, native species, pest, pet, poultry, predator, raptor, red kite, reintroduced species, rodent, shooting, vermin, vertebrate, wildlife | 13 Comments

Bovine TB in New Zealand compared to Britain and Ireland

Posted on September 28, 2013 by argylesock

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle (Bos primigenius) caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. You could follow my ‘tuberculosis’ tag. This disease is zoonotic. That is, M. bovis can infect us as well as cattle. Not very … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, ecology, knowledge transfer | Tagged alien species, bacterium, badger, bait, bovine tuberculosis, brushtail possum, disease, disease reservoir, finance, fur, history, human, livestock, mammal, marsupial, mustelid, Mycobacterium bovis, native species, oral vaccination, parental vaccination, pest, research, ruminant, tuberculosis, vaccine, vermin, vertebrate, veterinary, wildlife, zoonosis | 8 Comments

Rat poison ban could mean pest outbreak

Posted on April 27, 2013 by argylesock

Everywhere that people live in buildings, rats live too. In many places, including here in Britain, the most common kind of rat is the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). In different settings the rat is a charming pet (sometimes bred in … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, human health | Tagged bacterium, bromadiolone, building, difenacoum, disease, human, lab animal, law, leptospirosis, mammal, pest, pet, poison, rat, rodent, vermin, vertebrate, Weil's disease, zoonosis | 11 Comments

Democracy works for buzzards, forests and badgers

Posted on October 24, 2012 by argylesock

Yesterday I wrote how a daft plan to interfere with buzzards (Buteo buteo) was abandoned after a public outcry. Not long after that a daft plan to sell off our national forests also was abandoned. Today timr6 at Green Living … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, ecology | Tagged badger, bird, bird of prey, buzzard, carnivore, conservation, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, forest, mammal, non-passerine, Paterson_Owen, pest, plant_dicot, plant_gymnosperm, politics, predator, raptor, shooting, tree, vermin, vertebrate, wildlife, woodland | 7 Comments

Badger culling

Posted on October 18, 2012 by argylesock

My fellow blogger MottledThrush shows us what’s being said in Brussels about badgers. Here’s a list of notifiable diseases affecting livestock in Britain. Our Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, is taking a political risk here isn’t he? He might win … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, ecology | Tagged bacterium, badger, bovine tuberculosis, canid, cattle, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, disease, dog, fox, history, hunting, livestock, mammal, mustelid, Mycobacterium bovis, notifiable disease, Paterson_Owen, pest, politics, predator, ruminant, shooting, tuberculosis, vaccine, vermin, vertebrate, wildlife, zoonosis | 3 Comments

Rabbit hunting

Posted on October 17, 2012 by argylesock

The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is widespread and common in Britain. It’s not native here, being originally from the Iberian Peninsula. It was introduced about 1000 years ago and farmed for meat and fur. Now it’s naturalised and it eats crops, … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology | Tagged alien species, fur, game, herbivore, history, hunting, mammal, meat, pest, rabbit, shooting, vermin, vertebrate, wild food | 7 Comments

Food shortage and food waste

Posted on October 11, 2012 by argylesock

The Independent tells us that people are going whole days without food in the year the grains failed. Poor harvests are a real problem as I wrote yesterday. But is that the main reason for hunger? The European Union (EU) … Continue reading →

Posted in food, human health | Tagged America, Europe, food, food security, food waste, grocery, history, mammal, pest, population, rat, rodent, storage, trade, vermin, vertebrate, waste | 23 Comments

Tuberculosis, cattle and badgers

Posted on September 11, 2012 by argylesock

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle (Bos primigenius) caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. People can catch it from infected milk. That’s why milk gets pasteurised before we in rich countries buy it. TB’s not good news … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, ecology | Tagged bacterium, badger, bovine tuberculosis, cattle, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, disease, disease reservoir, disease transmission, livestock, mammal, mustelid, Mycobacterium bovis, notifiable disease, pest, rabbit, ruminant, shooting, tuberculosis, vermin, vertebrate, wildlife, zoonosis | 8 Comments

Rats on the move after floods

Posted on August 5, 2012 by argylesock

The brown rat Rattus norvegicus is a pest in Britain and in many other countries. Wikipedia calls R. norvegicus ‘the most successful mammal on the planet after humans.’ Now floods have driven it from its burrows and it’s invading people’s … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, weather and climate | Tagged Africa, America, Asia, breeding, domestication, Europe, flood, history, lab animal, mammal, parasite, pest, pet, rat, rodent, selective breeding, vermin, vertebrate, water, wildlife, zoonosis | 1 Comment