Rats! New poison targets tremendous rodents

At home

With rodent infestation at record levels, speed baiting – not to be confused with speed dating – is intended to provide farmers with a faster and safer means of combating rat infestation in barns and feed stores.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021, 7:00 a.m.

Rats can be cute, but they’re never welcome on a farm (Image: Getty)

Selontra, a new product that also fights so-called super rats, which are resistant to other poisons, can stop rodent feeding in grain stores within 24 hours, according to the BASF manufacturers. This minimizes feed losses and reduces the risk of rodent biological safety in animal feed. Concerns about resistance to rodenticide anticoagulant baits had created the need to introduce a new agent to combat the super rats, a spokesman said.

They added, “Some rats have developed resistance to difenacoum and bromadiolone drugs, which are used in a number of popular baits. In order to better control resistant rats, BASF has developed Selontra, which contains cholecalciferol in a very tasty bait matrix. “

The company said the product was more attractive to rodents than common agricultural food sources – and in agricultural trials it was shown to be 13.2 times tastier than corn silage.

It has also been suggested that a new baiting technique known as “quick bait” could reduce the time it takes to control farm infestations and allow farmers to control even large infestations quickly and with less bait:

“The new active ingredient cholecalciferol, which increases calcium levels in rodents’ blood, also means fewer, less harmful residues, which helps minimize the risk to non-target species,” the spokesman added.