Rodents Plague Northern Spain
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rodents Plague Northern Spain*
By DANIEL WOOLLS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 8, 2007; 2:24 PM
MADRID, Spain -- It's been a messy summer in Spain: a blackout in
Barcelona, an oil spill in the Mediterranean and giant schools of
jellyfish lurking off beaches packed with vacationers.
Now comes another woe: millions of mouse-like rodents called voles
feasting on beets and potatoes in an infestation that has prompted
desperation in one of Spain's agricultural heartlands.
The invasion of Castille-Leon in north-central Spain began gently 10
months ago but has snowballed to stunning proportions. Farmers' unions
say the region is crawling with an estimated 7.5 million voles. The
local government doesn't know the cause, or the solution.
Spanish television aired footage of scores of voles darting in and out
of holes in what would normally be rich, healthy farmland, or quivering
in the throes of death brought on by pesticide. Some of the critters
have even made it into gardens of homes in the region's main city,
Valladolid, according to news reports.
"There has never been a plague like the one we have now," said the
Castille-Leon regional agriculture minister, Silvia Clemente. Officials
have asked agronomists, veterinarians and biologists what on earth is
happening and nobody really knows, she told Cadena Ser radio.
"There are no measures that have been proven to work against a plague of
these characteristics," Clemente said.
For now, crews are fighting with fire. They started igniting controlled
blazes Wednesday on harvested farmland to try to kill off the pests,
acting with utmost care to keep the flames from spreading to bone-dry
terrain prone to forest fires.
Jose Antonio del Brio, head of the local farmers' association in the
town of Fresno el Viejo, where the first fires were set, said literally
every farm in the area is being eaten by voles. First it was the grain
crops _ 40 percent lost to the critters _ and now beets, potatoes and
corn are on the menu.
"We cannot do anything against these animals, who are taking food out of
our children's mouths," del Brio said.
A vole problem was first detected in Castille-Leon last September. Then,
officials used chemicals to try to kill them off, but ecological groups
filed a complaint and the practice was halted. The vole population
suddenly exploded.
"Nothing of what is happening with this plague falls within the expected
because there are no precedents," Clemente said.