9 tips and tricks on bait station placement

With autumn approaching, food and water sources become scarce for rodents, leading them to seek shelter on your farmyards, where both are available in abundance. Once they establish themselves on a property, they can be difficult to control. Rodents if not controlled well in time, can cause serious economic losses on farms through consumption, contamination and spoilage of food and feed, spread of pathogens which are damaging to human and animal health, damage to buildings and equipment.

Here are some bating tips and tricks that will help you control the infestation fast.

• Ensure the bait stations are in place before destroying any nesting area. Clearing a nesting area before setting up bait stations disrupts the rodents’ ecosystem leading them to escape to new locations without being caught.
• Where you set up bait stations is key to successful elimination. Spotting the infestation early will help faster elimination, before they multiply in large numbers. One major indicator of rat and mice presence is their droppings. Detex® blox with lumitrack, a non-toxic bait, is a useful product that can help you identify exact nesting locations. It has special additive that makes rodent droppings glow bright green under UV light.
• Once detected, setting up bait station at these locations is the next crucial step. Make sure you secure your bait stations to avoid exposure to non-target animals. Bait stations can be secured using screws, liquid nails, double-sided tape, hook and loop fasteners, duck-bill anchors, stakes or a chain. Tamper-resistant bait stations like the TOMCAT® BAIT STATION provide additional bait security.
• When baiting in populated areas, consider placing stations in discreet locations whenever possible.
• Heating ventilation and air conditioning lines, garage doors or other large doors, entry doors, etc. are some common entry points where bait stations can be additionally set up.
• Try to clear debris and harborage around your bait stations—this will make rodents more likely to seek your bait station for cover.
• Reusing bait stations will allow them to collect pheromones, making them more enticing to rodents. You can clear debris from your stations but should avoid washing them.
• Check the bait station twice weekly for evidence of use. If you notice that the rodents didn’t touch the bait, you might have a case of bait shyness. Jaguar® bait blox is a good option in such situation. It is a hard, multi edged single-feed anticoagulant, which gets unsurpassed rodent acceptance and control.
• Finally, ensure you change or freshen up the bait weekly. Remove any half-gnawed bait and clean up the area to ensure that rats don’t spill the bait to places where it is easily accessible for your farm animals.

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