Jeremy Hunt – Thursday 11 August 2016 6:12
Controlling vermin populations on broiler units is an integral facet of farm management, but the efforts applied by producers are often found to be ineffective.
Rat populations can escalate quickly and left unchecked and a unit can become over-run in three months.
Poor vermin control inevitably results in re-infestation and prolongs on-going health risks such as salmonella, which can be transferred from vermin to poultry.
Poulty World spoke to rodenticide expert Sharon Hughes, BASF’s global technical marketing manager and Paul Saven, director of Merseyside-based Instant Pest Solutions to find out why rat control programmes often fail and how to apply a successful strategy.
See also: Free training course offered to help with new rodenticide rule compliance
Reasons for poor control
Paul Saven of Instant Pest Solutions says poor control is often the result of not carrying out an initial site survey to assess the infestation.
No survey or a poor survey will cause issues with baiting effectively. A common problem is under-baiting, which can result in rats and mice becoming “bait aware” or “bait shy” and control starts to fail.
The main baiting issues are:
• Bait placed incorrectly – as rats are climbers so baiting needs to be in high and low locations
• Too few bait points for the level of infestation
• Too little bait at each bait point
• Bait not replenished as per label
• History of the site not taken into account (resistance, bait preference)
• Bait chosen not the most appropriate
• Bait boxes inappropriate
• Bait and/or bait boxes moved or removed completely
• Re-invasion from neighbouring areas
• Anticoagulant resistance