Besides affecting bamboo-eating animals, bamboo expert Chiang T'ao points out, when bamboo flowers it drops seeds which in appearance and nutritional value are similar to rice and wheat. In India and Pakistan, the flowering of bamboo thus brings about a huge increase in the rat population. And where there are rats, there is bubonic plague.
除了直接受害的「竹食動物」外；竹類專家江濤指出，竹子開花後，結出種子，竹種外有層殼，形狀類似稻、麥，成分也差不多，以往印度、巴基斯坦的竹子開花時，曾引來野鼠爭食，開了多久的花，野鼠就橫行多久，而等到開花期一過，鼠疫隨之而來。