Pet Safe Pest Control in our Nursery

[kfarms]

We are currently winterizing our plant and tree nursery, getting everything back into the greenhouses. To combat destructive rodents who like to feed on our plants in the winter, we typically put out rat poison.

This year, we now have the addition of a cattle dog and I don't want to risk him being poisoned. I'm less concerned about him eating the bait (as it would be out of reach) but very concerned he may eat a dead or dying rodent.

I was thinking of using a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a lid, and cutting a small hole in the top. My thought would be if the bait were in the bucket, it would attract the rodent to crawl inside. However, I'm hoping it would not be able to get out.

Has anyone done anything like this with success? Or perhaps another idea? It would be costly and difficult for us to set traps to cover the square footage of our farm and almost impossible for us to go around and clean out all of them daily.

Please help!

 

[gawildlife]

Google LD numbers on rodenticides. It makes for dry reading but the gist of it is LD is short for lethal dose. The LD for pets is way higher than it is for rodents and most modern rodenticides are some form of blood thinner (warfarin, heparin, etc) and very safe with very little environmental residuals. Plus an average dog would have to consume something like half it's weight in dead rats just to show symptoms. The blood thinner class is easily counteracted by administering vitamin k.
Do your homework before assuming the worst. I knew a Boston terrier that regularly consumed Contrac blocks with no I'll effect.

 

[gawildlife]

Another option is to use traps. You can set up many of the commercial bait stations either bait or trap like this.

The down side is one at a time kill and the need for daily monitoring to remove catches and reset traps plus the burden of handling rodents.
The up side is reduced costs compared to baits, even more if you cobble together your own trap boxes, and the increased knowledge of actual rodent numbers from daily monitoring.

 

[aart]

Google bucket traps.....wonder if the lid with a hole would work tho, with the water in the bottom.

Might need bigger than a 5 gallon depending on kind of rat, some of them are pretty big.

 

[kfarms]

Thank you! This really puts my mind to ease!

 

[amynrichie]

http://m.uline.com/mt/www.uline.com...-2G5QedVZ4EnLVTpcYLBmxoCRFbw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I had a horrible problem with rodents. I used bait blocks inside this live trap. It eliminated my concern of cats or chickens eating a dying mouse. after the first night, I had six in the trap, all dead. It also gives me freedom to put bait blocks directly in the coop, because the birds and bunnies have no access to it.