D22'-Lahcaster Farming Saturday, November IS, 1986
On the basis of an informal
survey of rodent experts at the
latest Vertebrate Pest Conference,
more than 50 percent of the rat and
mouse bait used annually in
agricultural situations is wasted.
There are many reasons why
much bait is wasted and why many
rodent control programs fail.
Among the chief reasons are lack
of knowledge and misconceptions
about rat and mouse baits, failure
to follow application directions,
and failure to follow an initial
baiting attempt with a complete,
sustained control program.
Rex E. Marsh, Specialist in
Vertebrate Ecology, University of
Califomia-Davis, singles out one
factor in particular: “Bait
placement is probably the single
most important thing. Most people
try to use an ‘eyeball census’ and
have no idea how many rodents
they have to begin with, or how
many they have left after a baiting
attempt. They don’t buy enough
bait to begin with and they don’t
place it properly.”
Proper bait placement is based
on a knowledge of the rodent, and
an understanding of the bait being
used.
Published information about
rodents and rodent control efforts
commonly emphasizes the unique
and almost amazing attributes of
rats and mice, such as their well
chronicled ability to survive in
harsh environments; their ability
to gnaw through soft bricks and
aluminum; chew through elec
trical wires; their ability to scale
vertical walls, squeeze through
small openings, jump great
distances, swim many miles and
withstand falls from great heights.
Also emphasized is the biology of
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Blue Ball, Pa. 354-4125
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Bait Placement
the rodent, how quickly they
multiply and how much they eat,
waste and destroy.
Without minimizing the im
portance or interesting aspects of
all these things, Rex Marsh
stresses. “Rather than biology, it
is the behavior of rats and mice,
and their behavioral differences,
that are important. For example,
mice have a much smaller ‘home
range’ than rats, and their feeding
characteristics are completely
different. Rats will eat what they
want in one feeding whereas mice
nibble. Rats are suspicious about
new objects in their environment
but mice are curious and will
readily investigate.”
It sounds too obvious, but the
first step in any rodent control
program should be to indentify the
rodent pest present. A mouse is not
a small rat. Young rats are not
mice.
Behavioral characteristics in
fluence, and dictate, the proper
placement of rat and mouse bait.
Especially important is the
customary or ‘habit’ travel
path...where rodents prefer to
travel as they range for food, and
how far they normally travel in
order to feed.
If food conditions are plentiful,
the house mouse on average will
restrict activity to a range of a few
feet, and will often cover their
entire range daily to check out any
change in their surroundings. Rats
range much farther than mice in
their search for food. Both rats and
mice prefer to travel along walls,
foundations, in burrows, etc., using
long sensing whiskers or vibrissae.
These behavior patterns are im
portant with respect to the
placement of both bait and traps.
Apply line early
Critical In Rodent Control
Any rodenticide should be placed
where it has a good chance of being
what it is supposed to be - an at
tractive and alternate food source.
Using any rodenticide, the car
dinal rule is; They must eat the
bait. If the bait is placed where it
becomes moldy, musty, insect
affected, or excrement
contaminated (in poultry or swine
confinement facilities), the ac
ceptance of the bait will be af
fected.
In addition to the behavior of the
rodent, the density of the
population (number of rodents
present), and proper positioning of
the bait, an understanding of the
bait used also is important.
Most of the baits commonly used
over the past forty years, since the
commercialization of warfarin in
1947, are anticoagulant baits. In
the use of these baits, the user
should distinguish between first
generation and second generation
products.
First generation anticoagulants
are multiple feeding baits. The
rodent must feed numerous times
on the bait in order to consume a
lethal dose. After a lethal dose has
been consumed over numerous
feedings, the rodent dies of un
controlled internal hemorrhaging.
Important in the use of these
first generation anticoagulant
baits is the realization that an
adequate supply of bait must be
kept before the rodents for several
days so that multiple can occur. If
an initial baiting is quickly cleaned
up and the bait not replaced, the
result will likely be a failed control
effort. Not many rodents will die
but many will become sick.
Second generation anticoagulant
baits usually are termed ‘single
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Public Section 208 of the Federal Clean
comment on the Maryland Water Act. It puts forth the state’s
Agricultural Water Quality agricultural program for
Management Program will be protecting water quality,
received at two public hearings Deadline for written comments
scheduled for Nov. 24, 7:30-9:30 is Nov. 30, 1986. Copies of the
p.m. at the Florence Bain Senior proposed program may be ob-
Activities Center, 5470 Beaverhill tained from the State Soil Con-
Road in Columbia and Nov. 25, servation Committee, Maryland
7:30-9:30 p.m. at Easton High Department of Agriculture, 50
School, Mecklenburg Avenue in Harry S. Truman Parkway, An-
Easton. ' napohs, Md. 21401. For further
The State Soil Conservation information contact Anne Sielmg
Committee has proposed this (841-5863) or Louise Lawrence
program in accordance with (841-5865).
X
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In PA. NJ. MD, DE. NY, VA & WV
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feeding’ baits (although they
sometimes work as multiple
feeding baits). They are ‘single
feeding’ only in a limited sense,
however. Second generation an
ticoagulant baits, usually for
mulated with bromadiolone or
brodifacoum, are toxic enough that
the rodent will normally consume
a lethal dose in a single feeding
rather warfarin-based products.
However, even after having
consumed a lethal dose in one
feeding, rodents typically will feed
multiple times on these baits
during the days of delay until
death, building up toxicity in the
rodent carcass that can pose a
secondary poisoning hazard.
In choosing a rat or mouse bait to
fit a particular agricultural
situation, where the hazard posed
to pets or non-target animals may
be a key concern, there are new
rodenticides available that provide
an distinct alternative to long
familiar anticoagulant baits.
One of these new baits is
True Grit RAMPAGE (R),
marketed by CEVA Laboratories,
Inc. Instead of the familiar in
ternal hemorrhaging mode of
action (anticoagulant), RAM
Give A Gift J
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LANCASTER FARMING Will SFND A GIFT CARD
Announcing The Start Of The Gift Subscription
Comments Requested On Md. Water Quality
PAGE uses Vitamin D 3 as the
active ingredient, and the mode of
action is calcification of the cir
culatory system, and resulting
death through heart attack.
An economic plus with this new
bait is that it is true single feeding
Unlike second generation an
ticoagulant baits where the rodent
will feed multiple tunes even after
consuming a lethal does in a ‘single
feeding,’ once a rodent consumes a
lethal dose of RAMPAGE all in
take of food and bait ceases. The ,
rodent does not continue to feed \
and waste bait during the days of
delay until death. Because of the
Vitamin D 3 ingredient, there is no
secondary poisoning hazard with
RAMPAGE to endanger pets or
non-target animals which might
feed on the rodent carcass.
In rodent control programs,
users often try one new rodent bait
after another and are disappointed
with results. Sometimes the
problem is that they are trying the
same product over and over,
dressed up in a new package and
marketed under a new name. And
sometimes the reason for control
failure is simply not putting the
bait in the right place.
ill This
LANCASTER FARMING
P.O. BOX 366
LITITZ. PA 17543
Subscriptions Will Begin
With Christmas Issue
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