Where did all the Tribbles go?

Question

At the end of Trials and Tribble-Ations, we see the whole station swarming with the Tribbles brought back from DS9's excursion to the past episode The Trouble With Tribbles.

Everyone, short of Klingons, love Tribbles, and wouldn't dream of sending them out into space or, dare I say, blowing one up to assassinate Captain Kirk.

Yet by the next episode, they're all gone. And I sincerely doubt Worf could have convinced the entire crew to begin a Mass Tribble Hunt, no matter how blood-sworn Klingons may be against such cuddly creatures.

So, where did they go? Do any expanded universe books detail the mass migration of Tribbles off of DS9, or did Worf really devour them all in his raw Klingon rage?

Answer 1

Within the TV series itself, there's no further mention of the tribbles or their fate.

There are, however a couple of EU sources that may shed some light;

According to the DS9 Comic "Nobody Knows the tribbles I've seen", the maintenance crews collected them all up and then beamed them into space. Quark also claims that Worf went on a mad rampage with a phaser rifle (on the promenade, no less) but nobody believes him.

Within the wider trek EU canon, we see that several of the tribbles escaped from the station and made their way to various Bajoran colonies (and eventually Bajor) in the story from "The Tribbles' Pagh" from Strange New Worlds IX

After threatening to cause another famine in Tozhat province. The Bajorans plan to kill them with "disposal units" until Doctor Bashir manages to synthesise a virus that limits their reproductive cycle.

Kira took a deep breath. “Bad. Dax says that there are at least a hundred thousand tribbles in the Tozhat Province. If they reproduce unchecked we’re looking at over a million within twenty-four hours. Trillions within a week.”

“I remember,” Sisko said gravely. “I thought the station quarantine was effective.”

Kira gave a short barking laugh. “It wasn’t. Shakaar has instituted a quarantine of Tozhat. We’re trying to track down anyone who entered the province in the last two days. All shipments of salom grass are being screened for tribbles. Elimination is a problem. We could use some industrial disposal units.”