How to control Rodents in the home and garden

A. Non-chemical control of rodents 

1. Inspect field, houses and godown often regularly.

2.  Hygiene 

I) Houses and buildings

♦  Keep stores and good tidy.

♦  Sweep stores and houses everyday.

II) Fields

♦  Cut and burn unnecessary vegetation.

♦  Keep fences clean (particularly near houses).

♦  Burn crop residues and rubbish piles.

♦  Keep dikes small between paddy fields.

♦  If possible, flood fields.

3.  Proofing 

I) Buildings

♦ Materials used for proofing the buildings and containers should be hard enough to resist the  gnawing the rat that is cement, metal, bricks.

♦  Cracks and holes in walls should be closed and doors should provide a tight fit.

♦  Doors should be closed tightly particularly godowns when it is not used.

♦ All wooden frames, doors and windows to which rat have access, should be protected by  metal strips to prevent rats cutting hole.

♦ In village hunts which can not be made rat proof, all food should be kept in rat proof  containers.

II) Trees Metal sheet (about 50 cm wide) tightly fit around the trunks of trees at least 2 meter height to  stop rats and squirrel climbing up.

4.  Trapping

♦  Kill or snaps trap: Kill the animal upon being trap.

♦  Life trap: Traps in which the animal caught in alive.

5.  Smoking and watering

Rats can be driven out by pouring water or smoke into the burrows. If available, a net should  be placed on top of the burrow system to prevent rat escaping.

6.  Digging

By digging the burrow system, rats can be killed.

B. Chemical control of rodents 

1.  Poison bait 

a) Single dose poison (acute poison): These poison act rapidly and killed rats after a single  feed. e.g. Zinc phosphide.

b) Multiple dose poison (chronic poison): These poison act slowly and an animal dies  generally a few days after taking of poisons. e.g. Anticoagulant.

2.  Tracking powders

Some Anticoagulant rodenticide are offered as tracking powder. These powder are sprayed on  the ground along runways or near holes.

3.  Gassing

To gas burrows a teaspoonful of poison powder (NaCN, HCN) or 1­-2 tablets (phostoxin) are  placed inside an open hole then all holes are tightly closed with earth.

4.  Fumigation

Methyl bromide and phostoxin are very effective in killing a resident rat population in stores