Darwin, Wallace, and The Gophers
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
We have recently suffered an invasion of critters. As we have retreated inside because of heat, dust, pollen, and COVID, the birds, ants, and vermin have taken over patios, roofs, and yards. Here we have shooed crows, rabbits, and squirrels, while exterminators tackled mice and rats. A different exterminator was needed for moles, voles, and gophers. A good company that routinely deals with termites and which had eliminated moles two years ago was called in. This time there were too many to consider freezing and the county's rules for the use of gas require some 200 feet distance from the home.
We agreed upon traps and poison. Some of the critters were destroyed but one got into the house and attacked only pears on the table twice, ignored cheeses, and returned outside when the poison and traps were removed. The woman who managed support was fascinated and recommended contacting a manager who couldn't authorize an investigation. The men involved were interested in getting the pests eliminated rather than the behavior that illustrated rapid evolutionary adaptation which while not capable of matching bacteria and viruses certainly exceeded Wallace and Darwin's expectations of millions of years for mammals and Rodentia.
