Ratmageddon – kriget mot skadedjuren

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Skadedjur har alltid krupit vid människans sida. Forskare tror att de blodtörstiga vägglössen fanns redan i stenålderns grottboningar. Genom historien har olika typer av ohyra inte bara gett oss kliande bett och förstört våra matförråd, utan också orsakat några av mänsklighetens mest förödande sjukdomsepidemier.

Under några decennier på 1900-talet, när en rad nya och kraftfulla bekämpningsmedel gjorde entré, såg det ut som att människan äntligen höll på att vinna den tusenåriga kampen mot krypen.

Men segervittringen blev kortvarig. Skadedjuren är tillbaka. De blir fler, de sprider sig till nya platser – och de har blivit allt svårare att bekämpa.

Programledare och producent: Anna Lillkung och Wendela Antepohl

Ordlista

Vektor – en organism, till exempel en råtta eller en kackerlacka, som för över smittämnen mellan varelser.

Patogen – ett sjukdomsframkallande smittämne, till exempel ett virus eller en bakterie.

Mikrob – en organism som är så liten att den inte syns med blotta ögat, till exempel ett virus eller en bakterie.

Resistens – en organisms förmåga att stå emot yttre påfrestningar, till exempel en bakterie som utvecklat motståndskraft mot en eller flera typer av antibiotika.

Källförteckning

Medverkande

• Thomas Persson Vinnersten – Biolog och entomolog på Anticimex

• Lisa Sarasohn – Historiker och författare till Getting Under Our Skin: The Cultural and Social History of Vermin

• Bobby Corrigan – Skadedjursbiolog med fokus på gnagare

• Åke Lundkvist – Professor i virologi vid Uppsala universitet

• Tuomas Aivelo – Assisterande professor i biodiversitet och samhälle vid Leiden University i Nederländerna och grundare till Helsinki Urban Rat Project

• Jose Pietri – Docent i mikrobiologi och entomologi vid Purdue University

Böcker

• Getting Under Our Skin: The Cultural and Social History of Vermin (Lisa T. Sarasohn, 2021)

• Rats : A Year With New York's Most Unwanted Inhabitants (Robert Sullivan, 2004)

• Plagues, Poisons, and Dead Rats: A Multispecies History (Lucinda Cole, ur boken The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature, 2020)

• Never Home Alone (Rob Dunn, 2020)

Artiklar/källor i urval

• Skadedjur i byggnader – en kunskapssammanställning (Malmö universitet på uppdrag av Boverket, 2025)

• Challenges in current pest management practices: Navigating problems and a way forward by integrating controlled release system approach (Singh et al., Chemical Engineering Journal, 2024)

• How pest control has changed in 100 years (Rentokil, 2025)

• Studie: Myror lika bra som gifter mot skadedjur (SvD, 2022)

• “They’re always there”: resident experiences of living with rats in a disadvantaged urban neighbourhood (BMC Public Health, 2019)

• Increasing rat numbers in cities are linked to climate warming, urbanization, and human population (Science Advances, 2025)

• Reconsidering the “War on Rats”: What We Know From Over a Century of Research Into Municipal Rat Management (Corrigan, Himsworth, Byers, m.fl, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2022)

• Surveillance of Emerging Rodent-Borne Pathogens in Wastewater in Taiwan: A One Health Approach (Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 2024)

• Bedbugs Could Be More Horrifying Than You Think. They might be capable of spreading disease, recent research shows. (The Atlantic, 2024)

• Anticoagulant rodenticides and resistance development in rodent pest species – A comprehensive review (Journal of Stored Products Research, 2020)

• Public Health Significance of Urban Pests (World Health Organization, 2008)

• Rodenticide Toxicity (StatPearls Publishing, 2026)

• Increasing rat numbers in cities are linked to climate warming, urbanization, and human population (ScienceAdvances, 2025)

• Public and media interest in bed bugs – Europe 2023 (Current Research in Insect Science, 2024)

• Large-scale structure of brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) populations in England: effects on rodenticide resistance (PeerJ, 2015)

• ”Hysterisk” ökning av klädesmal (Sveriges Radio, 2015)

• Second hand–trend bidrar till att fler har problem med pälsmal i hemmen: ”Var extra noga om du köper möbler” (Smålandsposten, 2023)

• De äter på mattor och kläder – så blir du av med klädmal (Göteborgs-Posten, 2024)

• Revenge of the clothes moths: as numbers boom, can they be stopped? (The Guardian, 2019)

• High prevalence of hepatitis E and rat hepatitis E viruses in wastewater in Gothenburg, Sweden (One Health, 2024)

• Lessons learned from bat and rodent reservoir hosts of zoonotic viruses (Trends in microbiology, 2026)

• Human ectoparasites and the spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2018)

• Yersinia pestis: the Natural History of Plague (Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 2020)

• Disruption of the microbiota affects physiological and evolutionary aspects of insecticide resistance in the German cockroach, an important urban pest (PloS one, 2018)

• Case not closed: arguments for new studies of the interactions between bed bugs and human pathogens (The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2020)

• Microbiome differences between human head and body lice ecotypes revealed by 16S RRNA gene amplicon sequencing (The Journal of Parasitology, 2020)

• Do bed bugs transmit human viruses, or do humans spread bed bugs and their viruses? A worldwide survey of the bed bug RNA virosphere (Virus Research, 2024)

• Competence of Cimex lectularius Bed Bugs for the Transmission of Bartonella quintana, the Agent of Trench Fever (PLoS Negl Trop Dis., 2015)

• Ratmageddon: Why rats are overrunning our cities (BBC, 2025)

• ‘Perfect rat storm’: urban rodent numbers soar as the climate heats, study finds (The Guardian, 2025)

• Global population divergence and admixture of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) (Biological Sciences, 2016)

• Highly Pathogenic Leptospira Found in Urban Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) in the Largest Cities of Sweden. (Vector Borne and Zoonotic Disease, 2015)

• First evidence of Seoul hantavirus in the wild rat population in the Netherlands (Infection Ecology & Epidemiology, 2015)

• Pet rat harbouring Seoul hantavirus in Sweden (Eurosurveillence, 2013)

• Seoul Hantavirus Frequently Asked Questions (Wisconsin department of health services)

• Leptospira Status in Sweden during the Past Century, Neglected and Re-Emerging? (Microorganisms, 2023)

• Bed bug infestations: prevalence, correlates, and cross-sectional association with psychological symptoms in a large sample of tenants in Montreal, Canada (BMC Public Health, 2025)

• Anticimex: Trendbrott för vägglöss – 19 procent fler saneringar 2025 (Anticimex, 2026)

• Rats infest Gaza's tent camps, biting children and spreading disease (Reuters, 2026)

• Reconsidering the “War on Rats”: What We Know From Over a Century of Research Into Municipal Rat Management (Frontiers in ecology and evolution, 2022)

• Cockroaches as urban pests: Challenges, public health implications, and management strategies (One Health, 2026)

• HURP: Helsinki Urban Rat Project

• How did the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak start? Scientists are investigating new scenarios (Science, 2026)

• A timeline of the hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship (AP, 2026)

• Hantavirus outbreak linked to cruise ship travel, Multi-locations (World Health Organization, 2026)

• Sjukdomsinformation om hantavirusinfektion (Folkhälsomyndigheten)

• Mjölbaggar erövrar studentboendet: ”Inte mitt hem längre” (SVT, 2025)

• Silent Carriers: The Role of Rodents in the Emergence of Zoonotic Bacterial Threats (Pathogens, 2025)

• 8 av 10 stockholmare har sett råttor (Anticimex, 2019)

• Silverfiskar vanligast men inte så farliga (Hem & Hyra, 2017)

Musik

• Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury – Dream Reality

• Cristobal Tapia De Veer – Pain Speedball

• Kid Loco – Theme from the Graffiti Artist

• Marcus Bagalà – Duco in Mara’s Room

• Cliff Martinez – I’m in the Pink

• Marcus Bagalà – Frets: Problem, After Problem

• Martin D Fowler – 1 Ships VII

• Ramin Djawadi – Winter is Coming

• Alberto Iglesias – Treasure

• Cliff Martinez – Save Some For Us

• Jocelyn Pook – Driving to Prison

• Cliff Martinez – I’m Sick

• Alice Cooper – Poison

• Cliff Martinez – Placental Repair

• Jessica Dannheisser, Adele Roberts – Parade of the Geese

• Cliff Martinez – Speight Lived Here

• Ochre – Midsummer Nice Dream

• Marcus Bagalà – Wires: Winchimes

• Michael Andrews – Peter and Sylvie

• K2 – Bexar Bexar

• Cliff Martinez – Navy Funeral

• Mike Patton – Murder is Work

• Martin D Fowler – 1 Ships XII

• Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Empty Places (Reprise)

• Cliff Martinez – Same Sweatpants

• Cristobal Tapia De Veer – The Public

• Jeff Beal – I think I Smell Gas

• Trentemöller – Take Me Into Your Skin

• Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Clue One

• Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein – Eleven

• Star Hopper – Through the Heliopause

• Paul Leonard-Morgan – Anderson’s Theme

• Martin D Fowler – 1 Ships III

• Jon Brion – You Learn

• The Mariachis – La Cucaracha