Bamboo Flowering and Rodent Control

The factors that cause flowering in bamboos remain a botanical mystery. Many causes have been attributed to trigger gregarious flowering in bamboo but it has not been possible to establish their consistency. People believe that famine, death and natural disasters are associated events of bamboo flowering. Death of large populations of bamboos spread over large tracts of forest areas in Asia-Pacific region has been a cause of concern owing to the ecological, social and economic crises that set forth following bamboo flowering. During gregarious flowering, large quantities of seeds are produced. Many animals, particularly rodents feed on these nutritious seeds and reproduce fast to increase their population sizes. Once the seeds are exhausted due to germination, the rats/rodents depend on crops in the vicinity, thus causing famine. Considering the technological, scientific, socio-economic and environmental consequences of bamboo flowering and associated growth of rodent populations, the menace of bamboo flowering remains as a challenge. The book Bamboo flowering and rodent control includes 12 papers representing different dimensions of the subject authored by well-known Indian and Taiwan scientists, is an attempt to address this scientific challenge.