Farm and Aviary rat control is a science

“They fought the dogs and killed the cats”

R Browning

“The Pied Piper of Hamelin”

One pair of rats under ideal conditions can generate a potential colony of 5000 rats in one year. A rat or mouse eats 10% of its body weight daily. That is roughly 30 g per rat at 1.5 g per mouse. If we convert all their feed requirements into grain equivalents, we can calculate that the combined offspring of one pair of rats will be consuming grain at the rate of 75 tonnes per annum. Expressed another way this would feed 600 growing pigs or 7500 laying hens for 100 days.

Since recorded history man and domestic animals have been accompanied and pestered by the rodents. Eating much the same feed as man and his domesticated animals rats and mice devour and spoil huge quantities of feed each year. They damage and destroy property, wander and scavenge widely, contaminate their whole environment and are carriers of the worst known diseases of man, plague, typhus, jaundice, and a whole host of parasites. They also play a part in the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

In devising rat and mouse control programmes, it is important to understand the behaviour and biology of rats and mice.

The individual members of most species remain within a restricted area for most of their lives. This is known as the home range and may be defended against members of the same species when it becomes known as a territory. Territories may also be defended by groups within the territory. The rattus species is known to be a very social animal amongst its own group. Most individuals quickly learn their place in the pecking order and avoid fighting. In dry sparsely vegetated and poorly populated areas, rats tend to form themselves into big groups, live communally, build and fortify nests as a group, and co-operate in caring for the young. Perhaps not surprisingly, in wetter areas where there tends to be an abundance of food, rats usually live singly or in small groups.

Although Mouse and Rat traps are still used, the major tool to control rodents in recent decades have been poisons. One of the greatest breakthroughs in the design of s to control and eradicate rodents can be attributed to those compounds which when ingested decrease the coagulation of blood and induce capillary haemorrhage (internal bleeding).

Using these compounds the symptoms of poisoning do not appear suddenly and death follows 5-7 days after feeding commences. Therefore, unlike baits that cause an instant kill, rats and mice do not develop “bait shyness” and continue to eat - even though they are slowly dying. This allows the whole colony to be eliminated as none of the colony becomes suspicious of the bait.

RCI’s product RAT BLITZ works exactly in this way. This is because grain based baits aren’t much good on farms where there is already plenty of feed around anyway. Rat Blitz contains specially formulated , which is so attractive to rats and mice it must be packed in (rodent proof) plastic buckets for transport.

Rat Blitz is attractive to children and dogs and cats and care should be taken when placing baits. It is lethal for pigs and should be placed in areas not accessible by pigs.

Fresh baits are much more attractive than old baits. For best results it is recommended that baits be changed daily.