How can I control rodents without anticoagulants?
Alternatives to Anticoagulant Rodenticide Poisons
- Before you have a rodent problem: Remove food resources and hiding places.
- If you have rodents: Use snap and/or electric traps to remove rodents. Remember also that you need to remove food resources and hiding places to prevent rodents from returning.
Reduce food sources for rodents
- Remove or prevent rodent access to fruit and nut trees - trim trees away from fences, roofs, and telephone lines; attach tree guards on tree trunks
- Prevent access to vegetable gardens - cover or enclose with net or wire
- Clean up and seal up domestic animal food, dog, chicken, horse etc.
- Remove bird feeders
- Clean up and seal up trash
- Seal up compost piles
- Clean BBQ after using
Reduce hiding places and shelter for rodents
- Seal up holes and cracks into house, attic, crawl space, garage, sheds, etc.
- Clean up wood/brush/junk piles that provide shelter to rodents
- Remove thick vegetation, specifically ivy, where rats can nest
- Remove tree limbs within three feet from roof
If your rodent problem is too big for you to control, contact a pest-exclusion company that uses sustainable practices. Pest control companies that practice Integrated Pest Management should be able to help you get to the root of the problem; seal up holes and trap rodents without the use of poisons.
Controlling rodents without anticoagulant rodenticide poisons may not always be easy but it will help benefit the health of our native wildlife.
