The ecology of the deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum de Geer

1. The ecology of the deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum de Geer • Dr Steven R. Belmain • Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB, United Kingdom • T: +44 1624 883761; F: +44 1634 883379; • E: S.R.Belmain@gre.ac.uk

2. Socio-economic tools for rodent management research: Recent experience from Africa and Asia • Dr Steven R. Belmain and colleagues • Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Central Avenue, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB, United Kingdom • T: +44 1624 883761; F: +44 1634 883379; • E: S.R.Belmain@gre.ac.uk

3. The black box of social science

5. Philosophy Mathematical proof Deductive reasoning Statistics Empiricism

6. Increasing complexity Physics Chemistry Biology Economics Sociology Political Science Psychology Archaeology History Linguistics Geography Sociobiology Biological Anthropology

8. Rodent Management will not work unless the Managers adequately understand the problem and its solutions in sufficient detail. • Tools and knowledge need to be appropriate

9. Rodent Managers • Qualified personnel – service providers • Pest Control Operators • Environmental Health Officers • Agriculture Extensionists • Everyone else – rural / urban settlements • Farmers • Households • Communities

10. Understanding the Manager

11. Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager • Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey • Community meetings

13. Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager • Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey • Community meetings • Resource mapping / survey

15. Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager • Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey • Community meetings • Resource mapping / survey • Individual meetings / questionnaires

17. Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager • Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey • Community meetings • Resource mapping / survey • Individual meetings / questionnaires • Observation

19. Tools that we can use to understand the Rodent Manager • Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Survey • Community meetings • Resource mapping / survey • Individual meetings / questionnaires • Observation • It’s all about asking the right questions and interpreting the answers

20. Designing your survey • Culture • Gender • Education • Language • Consultation • Pre-testing • Experience

26. Synthesising the data Decision trees, Flow charts, Matrices, Problem-cause diagrams, Bayesian belief networks Taken from: Aplin, K.A., Brown, P.R., Jacob, J., Krebs, C.J. and Grant R. Singleton (2003). Field methods for rodent studies in Asia and the Indo-Pacific. ACIAR Monograph 100; ACIAR, Canberra, AU. 223 pp.

27. Are there generalisations we can make about Rodent Managers? • People like to see dead bodies • Poison should act fast • Underestimation of the damage caused • Limited microbiological knowledge • Anthropomorphism • “Trap shy dogma” • The technology gap

28. Just a bunch of surveys?

29. Participation of the Rodent Managers in their own KAP assessment

30. Farmer Diaries • Five farmers in a group • Male and female groups • Six groups in a village • Four villages • Group leaders to manage • Meeting once a week • NGO staff to oversee process

31. Farmer Diaries • Recording information on time and money spent related to rodent damage, repairs and rodent management activities

32. { { Intervention No intervention

33. { { Intervention No intervention

36. Households in Jakunipara (intervention village) involved in recording various repair activities within a farmer diary. Activities coincided with the commencement of village-wide intensive trapping of rodents

37. Households in the village of Anandapur (non-intervention village) involved in recording various repair activities within a farmer diary

38. { { Intervention No intervention

39. { { Intervention No intervention

40. Tracking tiles as a socio-economic tool

41. Tracking tiles as a socio-economic tool

42. Tracking tiles as a socio-economic tool Rodents are too clever to be controlled and become trap shy / poison shy • Allows easy understanding of changes in rodent population dynamics • Reduces need for dead bodies • Efficacy of chronic poisons observed • Encourages monitoring & evaluation

45. Yes • Inform the research process • Educate rodent managers • Change human behaviour “New” management technology can

46. Future challenges for the social sciences in rodent management research

47. Human behaviour and disease Damage remains hidden, impact on people’s lives is unclear, economic cost is unknown Disease mechanisms and transmission Social stigmas and family decision making processes – late treatment Self-medication with inappropriate treatments Community cohesion levels - acceptance, apathy, dependence Social conservatism – traditional treatments and behaviour

48. Witchcraft and traditional medicine • Belief in witchcraft, and that illnesses are derived from bad luck, spells and curses is widespread throughout many countries • Traditional healers can have supernatural powers (for good and bad) through spells and potions that go beyond their administering of herbal remedies to the sick. • Rats are implicated in the spread of witchcraft in many cultures. Because rats are fast, they are believed to be used to bewitch others and make them ill - as a vessel of the curse sent by the witch.

49. Rats, Hygiene and Sanitation Concepts and socio-economics of disease Traditional beliefs of hygiene can vary among cultures and differ from modern scientific views, e.g. internal dirt, not external dirt Emphasis on tidiness rather than removal of environmental dirt Among young hygiene may relate to keeping one’s body clean and among older people to keeping a tidy kitchen Food and water borne diseases – e.g. river water always clean, wild animals are clean

50. Thanks to all my collaborators and Thank You for listening