[Annual Rodent Control Issue] Improving Bait Station Efficiency

To me, improving bait station efficiency means this: How do we make the station and the bait the most attractive to rodents? A rodenticide bait as a food source for these creatures is important to our control strategies and therefore makes the efficiency of the station important for our client’s safety, our company’s reputation, the protection of our client’s space and environmental impact. The device, the bait, the ease of maintenance of each station and, of course, documentation, all need to be questioned and answered.

There are multiple new innovations to help us in all of these areas. We cannot rely on “Old Faithful” and accept it just because that is what we have been doing for 30 years. There are stations with concrete blocks attached and ones with pre-placed blocks inside. There is a good station made of a PVC-type tube that houses a liquid feeder or blocks of rodenticide that fits tightly to a wall. There is a dual-action station that houses the blocks and liquid. We must always ask if our chosen stations are the most efficient stations to use to ensure we are successfully baiting and trapping.
 

Bait Stattion Placement.

To start to determine where we want to place bait stations, there are some biology and behavioral traits we must know. As experts in our industry, each technician or supervisor placing bait stations needs to consider several things when deciding placement. Rats are neophobic; mice are hyperactive. Considering neophobia in rats, we need to make bait stations become more a part of their environment or have them accept bait stations as such. We also need to consider the lines and shadows of the building interior vs. exterior and best placement of each station. Throwing out for a moment the thinking of “I have to place a station every 50 to 75 feet,” once we decide the necessity of the station, the rodents’ biology and behavior must be factored in and must govern placement to enable success.

For instance, on the exterior, if there is a shadowy spot/comfort zone for rats or mice, this would be a prime spot to place a station (or multiple stations). After all, we want them to feed, but if they are not comfortable, they won’t. I use the following reference when I am training new technicians: On Saturdays in the fall, I sit in front of the TV watching my beloved Fightin’ Irish play football. Although I have my tense moments, I am generally “in my comfort zone” and content. Thus, I tend to eat and drink more while watching the game. We want that same comfort level with our target pests.

The same would hold true when deciding where it is necessary to place bait stations on the interior of a client space in a restaurant (food handling) vs. a school (food handling and children in the area). We have a responsibility to follow the label, which says we can’t use rodenticides in certain areas. So our choices would be to place snap traps or glueboards in these stations. There are factors to consider when placing them in a zoo (animals) vs. schools (children) for safety and the attraction of non-targets/animals.

We want to search out the lines and shadows of the space to best place the station for efficiency. Neither the rat nor the mouse will typically feed in the open spaces of a room, at walls with no clutter or in areas that are well lit. They feed and travel in the shadows and run along the lines of walls, pipes and equipment. We have to put out of our minds that an audit criteria is the only reason or guidance for placing a bait station.

An efficient rodent bait-station program will not be as logical as we see it on a drawn map. To place stations in areas where we will have successful feeding, we will have every station placed against the wall behind a box, in a corner or under a shelf tucked against the wall. We will place them in the shadows and along the lines of the walls that have hidden runways. I would say that choosing to place a bait station on the interior of a space where a mouse or rat has found an abundant food source will probably create a challenge in getting them to feed on the bait until their chosen food source has diminished or has been made inaccessible. It may be more efficient to place a glueboard or a snap trap in the station.
 

Maintenance Tips.

Now that we have decided to place rodent bait stations, we have the obvious chore or responsibility of maintaining them to a standard to increase efficiency. There are several goals in maintaining our bait stations:

• Determine activity levels between services, clean up droppings and debris, and note activity.
• Maintain our level of professionalism. Clients do not want eyesores on the exterior or interior of their facilities.
• Prevent a competitor from bidding on this account. An unclean bait station is a competitor’s chance to point out a lack of service detail when trying to take the account away from you.
   

As such, every technician servicing rodent bait stations should carry:

• a small garbage bag.
• a paint brush.
• a rag.
• a spatula for scraping the station.
• a small amount of cleaner (preferably one that does not have a lingering odor such as Windex with ammonia).
   

We should be prepared to remove dead rodents (carcasses should never be left in a client’s interior trash receptacle) and clean the morsels of bait left behind from feeding, dirt built up between services and urine and fecal matter left behind in the station by the rodents.

The sanitizing of the stations has little to do with the rodents but is necessary to be able to determine activity between services and to satisfy third-party audit criteria (even though dirt build-up, urine and fecal pellets would increase our chances for feeding and catching these vertebrate pests). Another point on the cleaning of a rodent bait station is the ability to see the signs of a wearing plastic lid or cracks or breaks in the station. If we are maintaining our stations each service, we can be proactive and replace these worn or broken stations before they require replacement.
 

Documenting Details.

Whether we document on handwritten tickets or hand-held devices, the details of time of day, area and device number need to be gathered and may determine a need to alter the program we have in place to be more efficient. Available hand-held devices can reduce a technician’s time and labor by uploading data to a web-based reporting portal. This portal will house data that can be sorted by any criteria the pest management professional or client may choose and will aid in “searching out” the source and help eliminate the pest or conditions conducive to activity.

The ability to graph or map an area of activity, sanitation deficiencies, structural problems or water leaks is a valuable tool that, when used, can take away much of the labor needed to perform inspections and reduce the time required on each visit. The difference between an excellent service and a poor service is determined by the detailed documentation reported by the technician directly to the client.

About the author: Tim Hendricks is the director of technical and training for Horizon Pest Control, Midland Park, N.J.