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In the book "The Mote in God's Eye", by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the humans are forced to evacuate one starship due to it being overrun by the rapidly breeding Watchmaker caste of 'Moties'.

The Engineer class Motie they had captured simply opened his ship to vacuum to get rid of Watchmakers, keeping only one breeding pair.

In their look around the Motie world the human party noticed several main classes of Motie on the crowded streets but there wasn't noticeable crowds of Watchmakers.

It's been a while since I read the book, was there an explanation given for the comparatively low numbers of Watchmakers on planet?

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Remember the "warrior rat" Moties? The planet has an entire ecosystem with the various subtypes of Motie, and it goes through frequent cycles of population growth and collapse. They keep each other in check.

The ship had no balancing species, so technical measures were necessary.

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Remember when the original brown on the Mac orders the watchmakers to give bury his watch back? Remember how Ivan(the ambassador movie) orders the two Mediators to obey, by saying "obey"? Moties have an inherent hierarchy, and I believe that browns can easily order watchmakers around, just as mediators can order browns, and Masters can order other moties.

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    Can they order the Watchmakers not to reproduce, considering they will die if they don't? That's a strong hierarchy.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Apr 18 at 20:43

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