Pub trivia: Pests
Pests
While the difference between pets and pests is just a single letter, it's still not very common to name your pests. Here are a few facts that might make your skin crawl.
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Fact
There has been a 25% increase in the UK’s rat population in the last few years. Keep Britain Tidy estimates that there are now around 60 million of them – one for every person in the country.
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Fact
Ants make up about 10% of the combined weight of all animals on Earth. Scientists believe the combined weight of all ants is more than that of humans.
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Fact
Queen wasps hibernate during winter, re-emerging in spring to look for a suitable nest. The queen can then produce up to 2,000 eggs every day to build her colony, which can number 20,000 in a matter of weeks.
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Fact
The German cockroach is the UK’s most common species. During an average eight-month lifespan, a female can produce about 150 offspring. If a cockroach is seen during daylight hours, it has probably been pushed out from a colony due to overcrowding.
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Fact
A female flea consumes 15 times her own body weight in blood each day.
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Fact
A flea is capable of jumping up to 150 times its own length, which is the equivalent of a human covering 1000 feet in a single bound.
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Fact
It's the offspring of clothes moths (rather than the adults) that cause the damage. A two-week-old female can lay over 50 eggs and the location for hatching is chosen for the availability of food. Clothes are susceptible because these moths are attracted to fabric soiled with sweat and oil from human hair. The larvae hatched from the eggs then spend the first month of their lives furiously eating whatever surrounds them.
Dara O'Briain interview
Suavely suited and booted, Irish wit Dara O'Briain's tongue is as sharp as a jagged razor blade. We chatted to the big man (he's 6' 4'') about college, cartoons and off-the-cuffery.
