Contraception for squirrels

Impregnating contraceptives into seeds is a way that American scientists want to apply to reduce the rapid growth rate of gray squirrels, a rodent species that have a habit of destroying plants and crops.

As winters become warmer and nuts become more abundant, people in many US states are witnessing an explosion in the number of gray squirrels. Although possessing a lovely appearance, gray squirrels are really scary vandals. They devastated food crops on farms, biting wires, stripping bark, National Geographic reported.

To prevent the explosion of gray squirrels, controlling their reproductive activity is the most optimal solution. But certainly gray squirrels will not voluntarily take birth control pills. Even when they are ready to take birth control pills, birth control pills are too big for their throats.

Gray squirrels are lovely animals for many Americans, but they are also a threat to farmers.

Scientists have two options. They can use vaccines to prevent the production of sex hormones in squirrels, or to lower their cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is the substance that makes sex hormones.

The big advantage of vaccination is that an injection can work and the effect lasts for many years.

"But you will have to spend a lot of time to catch each squirrel. Injecting squirrels is not easy either. In addition, the cost for each injection is up to 50 USD, a pretty big number , " the researcher Christi Yoder, who worked at the National Nature Research Center in Colorado, said.

Another group of experts at Clemson University in Carolina came up with another idea: Use DiazaCon, a cholesterol-lowering drug.

Before recommending the idea of ​​using DiazaCon, the team studied its effects on gray squirrels for nearly 10 years. They lost more than 100 trees because of the habit of depriving squirrel bark and spending more than one million USD for planting, tending and chopping dead squirrel trees.

This year the dentists began to impregnate DiazaCon into black sunflower seeds - one of the favorite dishes of gray squirrels - at 16 locations where squirrels often appear on Clemson University campus.

"Black sunflower seeds impregnated with medicine should turn pink, but the squirrels don't care. I see them eating sunflower seeds passionately , " said Kristina Dunn, head of the project that impregnated with DiazaCon into sunflower seeds. stated.

Researchers will continue to throw medicated sunflower seeds in the next year. In the process they will monitor the behavior and reproductive activities of gray squirrels to assess the effect of DiazaCon. They also find out whether drugs cause side effects in squirrels and whether predators eat them.