Read the following extract which has been freely adapted from ‘Household Pests’ by PLG Bateman and answer the questions below

Authors Avatar

PAPER 1 1993

SECTION A

Read the following extract which has been freely adapted from ‘Household Pests’ by PLG Bateman and answer the questions below.

The human race creates its own pests and the first field planted with one crop provided a bonanza for the insects for which it was a food plant.  Volumes have been written on agricultural and garden pests as a consequence.  The same principle applies to buildings.  From the time the first man went to live in a cave, creatures have moved in with him.  Some crawled, some flew, some went in with animal skins and tree branches.  One or two specialised forms developed which literally came to live on us.  Fleas, lice and bed bugs may truly be said to associate with man for what they can get out of him: others are pests because they eat our food or bring disease organisms into the house.  Others again damage fabrics, furniture, even the structure of a building, and some we dislike having around because they are psychologically disturbing.

The parasites include lice and bed bugs; those which infest food include larder beetles, flour moths and cockroaches.  There are those which damage textiles, clothing and soft furnishings, such as clothes moths and carpet beetles and those such as mice, flies and wasps which invade premises at specific times of the year.  Casual intruders such as maybugs, lacewings, earwigs, woodlice, clover mites and ground beetles may also enter accidentally.  Woodworm, termites and rodents cause physical damage, flies, cockroaches and mice are a threat to health as they carry disease organisms; spiders, furniture mites, wasps or silverfish produce anxiety or distress.  Feral pigeons may simply be a nuisance.

Improved standards of living and environmental hygiene have greatly reduced infestations by parasites and many flies, yet developments such as modern central heating, fitted carpets and the continued use of untreated softwood timbers tend to contribute to the growing problems caused by carpet beetles and woodworm.  Tropical species like cockroaches now thrive in made-made moist warm climates under hotels, hospitals or in commercial kitchens in temperate zones.  There are very many other examples of the way pests change in importance.  The replacement of the horse by the motor car probably decimated the fly population.  More recently, the synthetic insecticides have added their contribution.  The development of resistance to certain pest control chemicals and restrictions on the use of some alternatives have, however, caused a great increase in mouse-infestations and made the struggle against some insects more difficult.

Join now!

Greater awareness of the need for hygiene in food-manufacture and catering has made us less tolerant of the one or two flies or the occasional mouse dropping in industrial or commercial premises, yet our homes often provide harbourages for potentially dangerous creatures.

There is no doubt that changes in the types of materials used in building construction, the design of buildings and the increases use of central heating are contributing to changes in the incidence of pests in buildings.

No longer do large areas of thatch and wattle and daub harbour resident populations of rodents and birds ...

This is a preview of the whole essay