Steven R Belmain

University of Greenwich · Department of Agriculture, Health and Environment

The development of large-scale monocropped agrisystems has facilitated increased problems with pests and diseases, perpetuating the reliance of farmers on synthetic pesticides. The economic success of synthetic inputs has, however, been achieved at a high cost to the environment through the loss of biodiversity, depletion of soil quality, greenhous...

Evidence-based information for smallholder farmers on where and when to conduct rodent management is vital given that most are resource poor and depend on agriculture for food and income. However, there is scarce information on how the foraging activity of rodent pests changes over agricultural cropping seasons. We used the concepts of giving-up-de...

The black rat is considered one of the world's top pests. With increased restrictions on rodenticides, new alternatives to manage rats are urgently needed. Research on the use of contraceptive hormones, levonorgestrel (LE) and quinestrol (QU), have been evaluated against some rodent species, and this research is the first study to assess these on b...

Botanical insecticides offer an environmentally benign insect pest management option for field crops with reduced impacts on natural enemies of pests and pollinators while botanically rich field margins can augment their abundance. Here, we evaluated the non‐target effects on natural enemies and pest control efficacy on bean aphids in Lablab of thr...

Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) are considered one of the most significant vertebrate pests globally, because of their impacts on human and animal health. There are legal and moral obligations to minimise the impacts of wildlife management on animal welfare, yet there are few data on the relative welfare impacts of rat trapping and baiting methods...

Climate change causes organisms, including species that act as parasite reservoirs and vectors, to shift their distribution to higher altitudes, affecting wildlife infestation patterns. We studied how ectoparasite distributions varied with altitude using two rodent species, Montemys delectorum and Rhabdomys dilectus, at different elevations (1500–3...

We investigated the empirical evidence supporting chemical rodent control as a public health program via a systematic search of the scientific databases PubMed and Web of Science, searching with term-strings for the concepts: “rodent control” and “zoonotic disease.” Retrieved results were screened by title and abstract to eliminate studies that (i)...

Field margins support important ecosystem services including natural pest regulation. We investigated the influence of field margins on the spatial and temporal distribution of natural enemies (NEs) of bean pests in smallholder farming systems. We sampled NEs from high and low plant diversity bean fields using sweep netting and coloured sticky trap...

An assessment was done to assess the intensity of rat eater and non-rat eaters’ species killed by the people during the rodent outbreaks in association with Melocanna baccifera bamboo flowering in the village of Basatlang, Neweden, Munlai, Mualpi and Ruma sadar market area of Ruma upazila of Bandarban district. The other objectives of the study wer...

Background: Trapping is a key method for monitoring small mammals and is also one of a number of methods recommended under an ecologically-based rodent management program to control rodent pest populations. Live-traps are widely used globally for studying small mammal populations. In Asia where rodents are major pests of rice, single capture traps...

Two experiments were conducted, first was to estimate maize seedling damage in farmers’ fields and a simulation experiment. This study aim to investigate the impact of rodent pest species, damage to maize crop in semi-arid areas at pre-harvest, with a view to provide farmers with appropriate information on rodent pest management interventions. I...

Flower-rich field margins provide habitats and food resources for natural enemies of pests (NEs), but their potential, particularly in the tropics and on smallholder farms, is poorly understood. We surveyed field margins for plant-NE interactions in bean fields. NEs most often interacted with Bidens pilosa (15.4% of all interactions) and Euphorbia...

BACKGROUND Hymenopteran parasitoids provide key natural pest regulation services and are reared commercially as biological control agents. Therefore, understanding parasitoid community composition in natural populations is important to enable better management for optimized natural pest regulation. We carried out a field study to understand the par...

Assessing the potential drivers of farmers using pesticidal plants for crop protection is essential for wider adoption. However, few studies have focused on collaborative assessments of the underlying trade-offs when using pesticidal plant extracts for pest control. Smallholder farmers in northern Tanzania involved in farmer driven research assessi...

Dolichos (Lablab purpureus L.) is a drought tolerant legume used as food/feed and improvement of soil fertility. The production of dolichos in Kenya, Nakuru County is however limited by insect pests like bean aphids, pod borers and whiteflies. Field studies were conducted to determine the effect of cropping systems (dolichos monocrop and maize-doli...

The multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis, is the most common rodent pest species in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, rodenticides are the preferred method used to reduce the population of rodent pests, but this method poses direct and indirect risks to humans and other non-target species. Fertility control is a promising alternative that has been...

Cattle are a livelihood asset to smallholder farmers in Africa yet remain threatened by the effects of ticks and tick-borne diseases during production because they cause morbidity and premature death. The use of indigenous plants in tick control is a worldwide practice spanning thousands of years. Changes in the agricultural and socio-cultural land...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) production and storage are limited by numerous constraints. Insect pests are often the most destructive. However, resource-constrained smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) often do little to manage pests. Where farmers do use a control strategy, it typically relies on chemical pesticides, which have adverse effe...

Literature on potential anthropogenic drivers of zoonotic disease risk in the Indian subcontinent is sparse. We conducted a scoping review to identify primary sources, published 2000–2020, to clarify what research exists and on which areas future research should focus. We summarised findings thematically by disease. Of 80 sources included, 78 (98%)...

Beneficial insect communities on farms are influenced by site- and landscape-level factors, with pollinator and natural enemy populations often associated with semi-natural habitat remnants. They provide ecosystem services essential for all agroecosystems. For smallholders, natural pest regulation may be the only affordable and available option to...

Traditional cultural beliefs influence perceptions of animals and can result in persecution of wildlife. In Africa, stigmas against species associated with witchcraft can act as a barrier to the uptake of sustainable practices such as reducing crop damage through reliance on indigenous predators rather than pesticides to control rodent agricultural...

Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria, which affects one-fifth of the world population. A comprehensive understanding of mosquito behaviour is essential for the development of novel tools for vector control and surveillance. Despite abundant research on mosquito behaviour, little is known on the stimuli that drive malaria vectors during the landing...

This study investigated the spatio-temporal association of small mammals in human-modified habitats. Small mammals were sampled using Sherman traps along 200 m transects (with one trap at every 10 m interval) in each of four habitats (cropland, forest patch, scrubland and wetland) replicated twice. Additional trapping was carried out in rural settl...

A study on the effects of prescribed burning on rodent community ecology was conducted in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. The study aimed at generating ecological knowledge about the changes in rodent communities when areas of the park are intentionally burned to regulate grasslands or reduce undergrowth that can lead to uncontrolled forest fire...

Background Many crops are dependent on pollination by insects. Habitat management in agricultural landscapes can support pollinator services and even augment crop production. Common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important legume for the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in many low-income countries, particularly so in East Africa. While this...

The presence of pest rodents around food production and storage sites is one of many underlying problems contributing to food contamination and loss, particularly influencing food and nutrition security in low-income countries. By reducing both pre- and post-harvest losses by rodents, millions of food-insecure people would benefit. As there are lim...

Rice farmers in Southeast Asia are hesitant to adopt the water-saving technology, alternate wetting and drying (AWD), for fear the practice will lead to increased rodent pest activity, consequently exacerbating yield loss. We examined the effects of AWD on the population dynamics, habitat use and damage levels inflicted on rice crops by the most im...

Yersinia pestis, the bacterial causative agent of plague, remains an important threat to human health. Plague is a rodent-borne disease that has historically shown an outstanding ability to colonize and persist across different species, habitats, and environments while provoking sporadic cases, outbreaks, and deadly global epidemics among humans. B...

Global perceptions about pesticides are changing as a consequence of their environmental impacts, persistence, broad spectrum activities and non-target effects. As a result of this, pesticide regulations are changing in some regions. For example, Europe has limited the number of synthetic chemical products permitted for use in pest control. The inc...

Rodents generate negative consequences for smallholder farmers in Africa that directly impact household and livestock damage, food security and public health. Ecologically Based Rodent Management (EBRM) seeks sustainable solutions for the mitigation of rodent damage through assessments of rodent population dynamics, agro‐ecosystems and socio‐cultur...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is an important food and cash crop in many countries. Bean crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa are on average 50% lower than the global average, which is largely due to severe problems with pests and diseases as well as poor soil fertility exacerbated by low-input smallholder production systems. Recent on-farm researc...

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a recent invasive pest species that has successfully established across sub-Saharan Africa where it continues to disrupt agriculture, particularly smallholder cereal production. Management of FAW in its native range in the Americas has led to the development of resistance to...

Conservation biological control uses habitat management to enhance the survival and impact of arthropod natural enemies for pest control. Its advantages are that it relies on native or established invertebrate populations that are adapted to local agricultural ecosystems and conditions. We surveyed 300 farmers in three agro-ecological zones of Kili...

Tephrosia vogelii is a plant species chemically characterized by the presence of entomotoxic rotenoids and used widely across Africa as a botanical pesticide. Phytochemical analysis was conducted to establish the presence and abundance of the bioactive principles in this species across three countries in East Africa: Tanzania, Kenya, and Malawi. An...

Investigation of home ranges, sex ratio and recruitment of the multimammate rat (Mastomys natalen-sis) in semi-arid areas of Tanzania was conducted in maize and fallow fields using the capture-mark-release (CMR) technique. The aim of this study was to generate useful data for the management of M. natalensis. The relative home range size of M. natal...

Background Field margin and non-crop vegetation in agricultural systems are potential ecosystem services providers because they offer semi-natural habitats for both below and above ground animal groups such as soil organisms, small mammals, birds and arthropods that are service supplying units. They are considered as a target area for enhancing far...

Non-crop vegetation around farmland can be valuable habitats for enhancing ecosystem services but little is known of the importance of field margins in supporting natural enemies of insect pests in tropical agriculture. This study was conducted in smallholder bean fields in three elevation zones to assess the importance of field margin vegetation t...

Parasitoids are among the most frequently reported natural enemies of insect pests, particularly aphids. The efficacy of parasitoids as biocontrol agents is influenced by biotic and abiotic factors. For example, hyperparasitoids can reduce the abundance of the primary parasitoids as well as modify their behavior. A field study was conducted at thre...

Most plant species depend upon insect pollination services, including many cash and subsistence crops. Plants compete to attract those insects using visual cues and floral odor which pollinators associate with a reward. The cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, has a highly specialized floral morphology permitting pollination primarily by Ceratopogonid midg...

Traditional cultural beliefs influence perceptions of animals, and in some cases can result in persecution of wildlife. Stigmas against species associated with witchcraft, for example, can act as a barrier to the uptake of more cost effective, sustainable, and environmentally sound practices such as reducing crop damage by controlling rodent agricu...

Agro-ecological intensification (AEI) harnesses natural processes, such as pollination, that support sustainable crop production and can buffer against future food security risks. However, the transition from conventional agriculture, which relies on inputs that can damage natural ecosystem processes, to more sustainable food production under AEI,...

Rodents contribute to the life cycle of the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii as an intermediate host and key prey animal of cats, the definitive host. As there is limited scientific knowledge available about the incidence and prevalence of T. gondii in commensal rodents in many Asian countries, we tested rodents from a commercial rice mill and...

Rodents remain a key pest of grain crops globally. Due to the environmental risks and rodenticide resistance in rodents there has been an increased interest in ecologically based rodent control (EBRM). Predation is a key component of EBRM that is often neglected. We use data from field studies and simulation models to investigate the effect of pred...

WHO organised meeting on surveillance and control of rodent-borne diseases

Rodents are regarded as crop pests, significant reservoirs and vectors for many zoonotic diseases around the world. Basic taxonomic information of rodents present in a locality can help understand which species are responsible as crop pest in that habitat. The phenomenon of the 50-year cycle of gregarious bamboo flowering and rodent outbreaks in th...

Food security in developing countries is threatened by crop pests and ectoparasites in livestock. Strategies for their management still rely on synthetic pesticides which are not always effective and the active ingredients persist in the environment with negative consequences for beneficial arthropods, farmers and consumers, hence necessitating res...

In the fight against arthropod crop pests using plant secondary metabolites, most research has focussed on the identification of bioactive molecules. Several hundred candidate plant species and compounds are now known to have pesticidal properties against a range of arthropod pest species. Despite this growing body of research, few natural products...

Present pest management methods are mostly reactive and have huge disadvantages such as emerging genetic rodenticide resistance with serious threat for relay toxicity. Rodent control should be based on pest-species ecology and ethology to facilitate development of ecologically-based rodent management (EBRM). A main aspect of EBRM is the advanced kn...

In order to complete its parasitic cycle of life, Toxoplasma gondii reproduces in feline animals as these are the protozoan's definite host. Because rodents are prey animals to cats, rodents contribute to the transmission and reproduction of Toxoplasma gondii. Not much is known or scientifically published about the occurrence of Toxoplasma gondii i...

With the introduction of the water-saving technology, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), farmers are hesitant to adopt this measure for fear the practice will lead to increases in rodent pest activity, consequently exacerbating yield loss. Rodents are one of the most important pests in rice, causing both pre-and postharvest damage. It is, therefor...

With the introduction of the water-saving technology, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), farmers are hesitant to adopt this measure for fear the practice will lead to increases in rodent pest activity, consequently exacerbating yield loss. Rodents are one of the most important pests in rice, causing both pre-and postharvest damage. It is, therefor...

The diet and breeding patterns of Mastomys natalensis in semi-arid areas of Isimani division, Iringa region, Tanzania were investigated in maize fields and fallow land. The aim was to investigate the influence of diet on breeding patterns of M. natalensis. Removal trapping was used to capture rodents and analyse diet categories while Capture-Mark-R...

This dataset includes data derived from camera trap surveys and questionnaire surveys relating to small carnivores in agro-ecosystems in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. The data were collected as part of the study “Predation by small mammalian carnivores in rural agro-ecosystems: An undervalued ecosystem service?”[1]. Camera trap locati...

Rodent pest management traditionally relies on some form of lethal control. Developing effective fertility control for pest rodent species could be a major breakthrough particularly in the context of managing rodent population outbreaks. This laboratory-based study is the first to report on the effects of using fertility compounds on an outbreaking...

Africa is endowed with a diverse guild of small carnivores, which could benefit stakeholders by providing ecosystem services while fostering conservation tolerance for carnivores. To investigate the potential of small carnivores for the biological control of rodents within agro-ecosystems, we assessed both the eco- logical and social landscapes wit...

Even though many globally important tropical agroforestry crops are partially or completely dependent on insect pollination, the conditions influencing pollinator abundance in these systems are often incompletely understood. This is particularly the case for cocoa midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), which are essential for cocoa pollination and thus...

Botanical insecticides provide a multitude of chemistries for the development of new pest management products. Despite relatively low rates of expansion of botanically based pesticides, regulatory changes in many parts of the world are driving a renaissance for the development of new natural pest control products that are safer for human health and...

The diversity of synthetic pesticides has been reduced through regulation especially in the European Union, leading to a resurgence of interest in natural plant products for pest control. Here we investigated two Asteraceae species, Tithonia diversifolia and Vernonia amygdalina that are used by farmers in Africa in bio-rational pest control to dete...