Rat Bait and Mouse Bait

When it comes to controlling rats and mice, using rodent bait is one of the key tools for professional pest managers. However, to get the best results from rodent baits it is important to understand rodent behaviour and to prevent accidental poisoning it important to know how to use them safely.

For professional rodent control, the use of bait should generally be the last resort as detailed in the AEPMA Code of Best Practice for Rodent Management. The reason for this is minimise adverse events (accidental poisoning of non-target animals and secondary poisoning of predators) and to reduce rodenticide resistance. There are a number of ways to minimise rodenticide use both in commercial accounts and in homes.

Rodenticides

Whether rat bait or mouse bait, most of the common rodent baits use anti-coagulants as the rodenticide. Older anti-coagulants like warfarin are called first generation anti-coagulant rodenticides (FGARs) and the newer ones are called second generation anti-coagulant rodenticides (SGARs). These SGARs are a lot more potent and were developed as ‘resistance breakers.’ Read more about the evolution of rodenticides.

All these ant-coagulant rodenticides have the same mode of action and interrupt the blood clotting mechanism, causing internal bleeding in effected rodents, who eventually fall unconscious and die within 4-7 days of consuming a lethal dose.

Rat bait or mouse bait?

Although most people will talk about rat bait more than mouse bait, the reality is that for the most part there are no unique rat or mouse baits, just rodent baits, which can be used for the control of mice and both of the pest rat species, the roof rat and the Norway rat.

Which bait should you use?

With a wide range of similar products on the marketing it can be difficult to know which product to use, which is where the experience of a professional pest manager comes into play. One of the key factors in product choice is bait palatability. It’s important that the rodents in question like the bait being offered, so they readily eat the bait and quick control is achieved. Apart from the intrinsic palatability of the bait concerned and general preferences of the rodent species, understanding what other food sources are present in the environment can influence the decision.

Types of rodent bait

Generally speaking, there are three types of rodent bait – wax blocks, soft baits and pellets. All are cereal based but each format has different strengths and weaknesses. Here are some thoughts on when to use soft rodent bait v rodent block baits.

How to use rodent bait?

How the bait is used – its placement and quantity used does vary depending on the rodent species. (More on rodent bait placement). Rodent baits should generally be placed inside lockable bait stations for safety, although burrow baiting is a specialised technique using rodenticide pellets.

Rodent bait monitoring

The success of any rodent baiting program relies on monitoring bait levels. Are the rodents taking the bait? Have they eaten all the bait? Do you need to place more bait? For major infestations and ongoing rodent management programs monitoring is more critical. Fortunately, with technological advances there have been a number of remote rodent monitoring systems arrive on the market using IoT technology. This are likely to become mainstream in the coming years, especially in commercial accounts.

Pet safety and Secondary Poisoning

When using rodenticide baits, safety is the number one priority, which is why using a professional pest manager is highly recommended. Simply throwing some bait into the roof void is unlikely to succeed and significantly increase safety concerns.

Firstly, it is important to consider the chances of accidental ingestion by children, pets or non-target animals (e.g., possums). Using alternative techniques where possible is the first choice, but if baits need to be used, they must be placed in lockable bait stations and placement needs to be considered. Most rodent baits contain a bittering agent to minimise accidental ingestion.

Secondly, the opportunity for secondary poisoning through rodent baits needs to be minimised. Secondary poisoning is where a predator eats a rodent that has eaten rodent bait. Pest managers will use a variety of strategies to minimise secondary poisoning.

Back to rodent control.

More information on rats and mice.