Ungrateful guests (Ospiti ingrati)

What are “synanthropic animals”? A new name for species that are not new. Changes in climate, environment and habits have exposed us to an unusual barbarian invasion: mice in the attic, wasps on the terrace, seagulls on the roof, jellyfish floating among bathers… What to do with them? These are the “ungrateful guests” of the title, more bewildered than convinced, and they inhabit artificial environments built by man, making them estranging and hostile to us. Due to their number, to the spreading of new diseases and to enforced cohabitation they are becoming pests. This book – a manual that reads pleasantly like a thriller – explains the evolutionistic rules governing our relationship with synanthropic animals, recounts their history and advises us about what to do at a time when all seems lost.