Chicken-safe rat poison sought

[Vicki B.]

I bought Rat X here is a description below.I soaked in some bacon grease they ate a little bit of it. I am not sure what they are living on I live in the middle of almond orchards but after harvest in the fall I would not think there is enough almonds to sustain them.
Rat X is a non-toxic rodent bait that kills rodents without harming any other species. Rat X is made from 100% natural ingredients - it can even be used inside food handling facilities. The mice and rats will eat the bait like a food source and Rat X will cause dehydration.

 

[Howard E]

If you dig into it, you find the active ingredients in Rat X are "corn gluten meal" and NaCl......aka, table salt. Claims are bait blocks a signal to the rats brain to cause it to forget to drink, and with an extra dose of salt, then dies of dehydration? It has a long product description here......

https://www.amazon.com/EcoClear-Products-620101-All-Natural-Non-Toxic/dp/B00RU6YHJW

I do see where instructions say to keep product dry......or product is not as effective. Not sure if wetting with bacon grease is the same thing, and product was made less effective, or never effective to begin with. Product reviews are both positive and negative, but one always has to take those with a grain of salt (no pun intended).

But when you go digging into evaluations of various types of rat baits, products like Rat X and home brew options like the use of baking soda are not even mentioned. Is it because they are not sold and used as such (not regulated by government), or because the don't work?

And again, to be effective, the use of any bait is step 3 in a 3 step process as outlined here......

http://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/phag/2016/01/29/controlling-rats-and-mice-around-the-farm/