Water rat in the garden: how to deal with the pest with the greatest efficiency

Hello! Recently I found out that one of the sites in our village, which is located next to a large body of water, is put up for sale.

I knew the landlady well and at the meeting I asked her about the reasons for the sale. It turned out she didn’t really want to sell, but she was tired of fighting water rats.

I met her in time, because I have successful experience in countering this pest, which I shared with this woman. Want to learn how to deal with a water rat in a garden? How to quickly get rid of this pest? Then read on.

Why is a water rat worse than a mole?

The water rat brings a lot of trouble to gardeners and gardeners whose sites are located near water bodies. Her home is a mink, which she equips in bumps on the shore, in reeds, hollows of tree trunks lying by the water.

The invasion of these animals can become intimidating, since during the summer they breed up to 4 times, and the young growth begins to bring cubs 2 months after its birth.

When autumn approaches, these rodents move to land, closer to the crops of root crops and grains. It was at this time that they inflict maximum losses, building minks in the ground with numerous moves.

If rodents have settled in the garden, they will have to start a real war, since getting rid of a water rat on a site can only be done using harsh methods. The fact that they appeared can be guessed from the dug up earth.

Sometimes the owners of the plots think that moles are digging the land, but they do not eat vegetable crops, and water rats are dangerous because they can destroy the entire crop of potatoes, carrots, and beets. They do not necessarily eat everything in place.

Moles and water rats get along well with each other, so both can settle on the site. However, it is necessary to fight with rats, as they become the culprits of crop losses.

Many popular methods are aimed at the expulsion of these rodents, but before you destroy the water rat, you must carefully choose one of two options. First: rodents can be poisoned, but this method may not work. The second method is more humane and effective. It is based on the complete expulsion of rodents from the site.

Gardeners suffer from water rats no less than gardeners. They eat young shoots, flowers, literally devastate everything in their path. Many plants do not die because animals eat them. The reason for the death of flowers, shrubs and trees is the fact of digging minks with water rats. They plow the earth, the roots turn out, dry out and die.

If there are few of them on the site

You can catch a rodent with a trap. However, this method is suitable if there are a small number of them. An arc trap is used for them, which is used for fur animals. It is installed in the ground at a depth of about 20 cm from the surface.

Pits with traps on top do not cover and do not fall asleep with earth.

Rat poisoning

The method is not very humane, but it works for sure. Rat poison should be decomposed near the mink. However, before destroying the water rat, it must be attracted to this poison, for this it is frayed with baits. It may be special additives that the distribution network offers.

You can also use bread crust. This method can harm pets if they are not kept in enclosures. Cons of etching: water rats after death begin to decompose, and not all can be found and burned.

How to drive water rats off the site forever?

A humane way to get rid of these rodents offers a trading network. Ultrasonic repellers make animals throw minks forever. Many summer residents believe that rats will get used to a certain range of sound and come back.

You can avoid this if you buy a repeller, which automatically and regularly changes the range of sound, not allowing the animals to get used to them.

The advantages of this method: it expels from the site all rodents, and not just water rats.

Folk methods of expelling these animals are forever based on their sensitivity to odors unpleasant for them. The most effective are the following:

• set fire to a rabbit skin (can be cut into several parts) and hammer in the holes in the hole;
• dilute furnace soot with water to a viscous consistency and fill in the entrances to holes.

How to prevent a return?

After getting rid of rodents, you can protect yourself from the invasion of new ones by erecting a fence on an in-depth solid foundation. It should go into the ground by at least 40 cm. It is important that the fence sections and their attachment points to the supports do not have gaps into which animals can climb. It is better to build a capital fence of natural or artificial stone, the sections should be quite high.

How to deal with a water rat in a harmful garden

Rodent pests that can be found in the garden are diverse. Among them, one can meet both ordinary mice and their larger relatives. For example, a water rat in a garden is not such a rare occurrence in those places that border water. Learn how to deal with a pest, and which methods are more effective.

Pest Description

Water rat is a mammal of the hamster family. She looks like an ordinary rat, but differs from her in a more elongated body, covered with soft, smooth and silky hair. A water rat has a shorter muzzle than an ordinary rat, crowned with short ears, and shorter legs, hiding in long fur.

The water rat also differs from the muskrat in that its tail is not flat, but round in cross section, thin and not completely naked, but covered with sparse hairs and ends with a kind of brush half a centimeter long. Also, a water rat can be distinguished by smaller eyes and yellow-brown middle incisors.

Rats weigh from 120 to 330 g with a body length of 11 to 26 cm, with half or even two-thirds of the length of the rat body per tail.The coat consists of a clearly distinguished thin, but dense undercoat and a rough awn.

The coat color is uniform, dark brown with a slight reddish or almost black. It does not depend on the change of seasons. The fur of the water rat, thick and long, is good enough to be used for sewing outerwear and women's hats.

Habitat and lifestyle

Water rats are therefore named because they live near water and can swim. You can meet them near large streams and rivers, ponds and lakes with weakly flowing or still water and swamps. But these animals are not limited to the aquatic environment. They like to go to areas adjacent to the water, including fields, garden plots and vegetable gardens.

Rats live in burrows dug underground, characterized by a considerable length and a complex branching system. Near the entrance to them you can see a handful of soil thrown to the surface.

The offspring of a water rat are born in warm spring and summer. Pregnancy in females lasts only 20 days. During the season, each female brings from 4 to 6 litters, in which there can be from 6 to 14 babies. Cubs leave holes as soon as their weight reaches half the mass of adults.

What the water rat eats is easy to guess. These pretty cute animals are omnivorous; their diet includes both aquatic plants and small fish, mollusks, crayfish, adult insects and their larvae. If there are gardens or gardens nearby, visit them too, where they damage:

Young trees and shrubs attract rats with their bark and roots, which they would like to feast on. In winter, they feed on what they stocked up in the summer.

Water voles live in the northern part of Eurasia. The southern border of the habitat runs along the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor and Western Asia, and the northern regions of Mongolia and China. In Russia, it lives in the non-chernozem zone, the Stavropol Territory, the Lower Volga Region and Siberia.

Harm

Water vole is considered a massive pest of agricultural land - pastures, hayfields, orchards and fields, as well as garden and summer cottages. Moreover, the most significant damage to rats is caused to cultivated plants in places located in floodplains of rivers and adjacent to water bodies.

The harm caused by rats is as follows:

But this does not limit the harm caused by water rats to humans. They can infect people with the causative agents of hemorrhagic fever, tularemia, plague, tick-borne encephalitis, leptospirosis. Therefore, the fight against these animals is carried out not only because of agricultural crops, but also for the health of the population.

Methods of struggle

They try to fight water voles in various ways. Methods of dealing with them include destruction by physical, chemical and biological methods.

Physical methods include the destruction of water rats using:

• mechanical traps for rats;
• glue traps;
• electrical barriers;
• ultrasonic emitters.

They destroy the rat with chemicals, for which they use rodenticides (for example, rat poison) and repellents.They struggle with rodents and biological methods - they infect them with pathogenic microorganisms and parasites, and predators are released on them.

In garden and summer cottages, you can get rid of water rats in the following ways:

All these measures are humane and aimed at expelling pests from the site, rather than physically destroying them, as well as preventing their subsequent settlement.

In order not to care about how to remove water voles from your garden or garden, you need to prevent their appearance there in every way.

To do this, install a metal mesh fence along their perimeter on an in-depth cement or brick foundation. This will create an obstacle in the way of rodents.

Preventative measures

In order to prevent the appearance of water rats on farmland, storage facilities and forest areas, a number of preventive measures are being taken, the purpose of which is to eliminate favorable conditions for the nutrition and reproduction of pests, as well as their destruction.

It includes:

1. Autumn deep plowing of fields that destroys rat holes.
2. Installation of various automatic devices that prevent the penetration of water rats into warehouses, granaries, cellars and to communications in them.
3. Maintenance of cleanliness in the territory of these facilities.
4. Cultivation of forest areas and their release from dead wood, weeds and fallen leaves.
5. Preventive deratization using pesticides and mechanical traps for rats.

This set of measures allows you to control the number of pests and prevent them from settling in new territories.

So that they do not damage the trees and beds, all measures should be taken to ensure that pests do not penetrate the site, and if they appear, drive them out of there. Only in this case can we expect that in the fall it will be possible to collect all the grown crops.

Earth rat in the garden

Earth rat (water vole) prefers to settle along the banks of rivers, lakes, irrigation canals, on irrigated lands. The rat is an excellent swimmer, and at the same time, it is adapted to underground life.

Like a mole, an earthen rat digs underground passages. It feeds mainly on plant foods. Undermining the roots of plants, the earthen rat ruins the crops of barley, wheat and rice, perennial grasses. Vegetables and gourds suffer from its activities.

How to get rid

An earthen rat in the garden breaks through an extensive system of moves at a depth of 60 cm. The rodent prefers cluttered areas where you can hide under a pile of peat, branches or manure.

Arc traps are installed against the pest.To do this, dig a found hole a little, install the device and sprinkle it on top of the ground.

Earth rats are caught by hunting cylinders. Such a trap is made of galvanized sheet. The diameter of the trapping cylinder is 15 cm and the height is 50 cm.

Inspection of traps and the destruction of animals can be replaced by a more humane way of fighting: install an ultrasonic repeller in the garden. Inaudible to the human ear, the high-frequency sound is intolerable to the rodent.

With severe infection of the site by rodents throughout the territory, ready-made poisoned baits are laid out:

• Grain bait "Difa-Neo."
• Paraffin briquette "Difa". The briquette is used in conditions of high humidity.
• Ratron Giftweizen is a quick-acting granular preparation.

People's councils

How to get rid of a water rat

Water rat is a headache for all gardeners and gardeners of our summer cottage area. It is located on the former snake "training ground", there is even a snake pond. There used to be a lot of steppe tulips and irises of different colors, now the flowers are gradually disappearing: the whole field is pitted with these very rats.

Somehow I woke up early in the morning from a drum rumble. I didn’t understand what was happening right away. I went out into the yard, and this neighbor beat her with a stick in an enameled basin. “What does this mean?” I asked. The answer stunned me: "I drive rats." I laughed heartily, saying that this method would help like a dead poultice.

But she did not believe me, saying that she had read about him in a summer house publication. The crash lasted three days, but alas! All her tulips were eaten during this time. I was right, the rats mocked the neighbor ...

I remembered how my grandmother fought with rats in a chicken coop (we didn’t hear about water then). Our cat caught rats and, strangling, threw them. My grandmother poured kerosene on the rat, set it on fire, then drove the cooled carcass into a rat hole. The animals left forever.

I did not have such an opportunity, and I acted differently. I cut the rabbit skin into pieces, set fire to and beat rat passages in the garden. The rats were removed from my site.

My sister, who lives in the Kuban, fights these pests differently. Collects furnace soot together with tarry balls from a pipe, spreads it with water to the consistency of sour cream and pours it into rat holes. He also collects used engine oil, wets rags abundantly with them and also drives them into holes.

Having got rid of rats, I now supply all the neighbors with skins and soot. Rats do not tolerate odors, they are very careful and will never return to a hole smelling of strong "aromas". Now on my site and tulips, and irises, and Jerusalem artichoke grow quietly, no one damages them.

We fight with a water pest

This species of rat is the largest among voles. The standard habitat for water rats is the banks of rivers, lakes, ponds, however, it often lives in drier areas, for example, in your garden or garden. A water rat migrates here, most often during floods.

The water rat digs shallow underground underwater intricate moves, destroying the fertile layer of soil, it throws part of the earth out. Water rats come to the surface, usually along the edges of the plot, as well as in the most cluttered areas, often in landfills.

Folk methods

If you had to meet a water rat, you will certainly face the question: how to get rid of rodents? To begin with, getting rid of rodents by folk methods is not one day's business.

First of all, you need to put your site in order and throw out all unnecessary garbage from its territory in order to deprive the rodent of the opportunity to go to the surface unnoticed. Trees should be tied for the winter with branches of spruce or cut along plastic bottles.

Even to get rid of rodents, you can use special bait with poisoned food, most often use grated carrots, but you can also use poisoned grains, zucchini, oats, potatoes, soaked peas. The most vulnerable rats for this method are during winter stocking.

When making poisoned baits, one should not forget that, despite their low toxicity to humans and domestic animals, one should nevertheless make sure that they are consumed by rodents and pour the bait into special feeders.

Ultrasonic Repellers

We recommend using ultrasonic rodent repellers - a very well-established, proven, fast and safe method.

How to get rid of water rats?

What if in the spring you found that the garden plot is penetrated by many underground passages, and the roots of cultivated plants are eaten?

Often the culprit of this trouble is a water rat (water vole). The habitats of water rats are the shores of water bodies. The main food of these animals, the size of an ordinary gray rat, is aquatic plants, the juicy and soft roots of marsh grasses, but often in winter they attack fruit crops when they travel considerable distances from water bodies in search of food.

This insatiable animal pest can completely devour juicy root vegetables of carrots and beets, potato tubers. The water rat actively feeds on small animals - frogs, fish, insects and earthworms.

A water vole digs complex long burrows at shallow depths, penetrating the fertile layer. Exits to the surface are arranged in thickets of grass, along the edges of roads and ditches, in heaps of peat or rotted manure. The animal overwinters next to its permanent habitat, providing itself with a stock of root crops and grain for the winter.

Measures to combat this dangerous pest are extremely complex. Ordinary traps and mousetraps are little suitable for catching these animals, but the water rat does not have natural enemies.

To combat a water vole, root crops such as beets, carrots, and potatoes are used as bait. Cutting the root crop in half, make a notch in it and fill it with zinc phosphide or pulverized arsenic preparations (Parisian herbs, calcium arsenate).

Halves fasten firmly and lay them near the hole. The bait can also be made from mashed potatoes or carrots by mixing it with zinc phosphide at the rate of 5 g of pesticides per 100 g of mashed potatoes. The bait is laid out in burrows and passages of rats in pieces of 3-5 g.

Rats eat well baits made from the basal (underwater) parts of sedge.The sedge is pulled out, then the lower underwater part is cleaned of leaves and chopped into pieces of 5-10 cm in size, mixed with zinc phosphide or dusty preparations of arsenic at the rate of 5 g of poison per 100 g of sedge stems.

In the absence of these poisons, sedge bait can be prepared with arsenous sodium hydroxide (1 weight part of poison in 30 parts of water). Pieces of sedge are soaked in solution for two days and laid in burrows.

All of the listed pesticides are extremely dangerous for people and animals, therefore, when working with them, it is required to observe the established precautions.

It is possible to use grooves with a depth of 10-15 cm from the reservoir to the garden, which rats use when moving. Kill rats in the grooves using wooden boxes pollinated inside with zinc phosphide (10 g of poison per box).

Box size: length and width - 15 cm, height - 10 cm, inlet openings are semi-oval, 5.5 cm wide, 3 cm high. Running into the boxes, the rats get dirty with poison and subsequently die. In such boxes, but not pollinated with poison, poisonous baits can be laid out in small portions.

It is believed that rats are repelled by the smell of creolin, so it is recommended in late autumn to pour peat crumbs or ashes around the trees soaked in a 5% aqueous solution of creolin (50 g of substance per 1 liter of water). Prepared peat chips are poured into the grooves with a depth of 8-10 cm at a distance of 12-25 cm from the tree.

Let's say no to rodents

Fighting rodents is an urgent problem for any gardener. No matter how you poison them, you poison them, you catch them with traps - but they don’t care! They disappear for a couple of months, but then return in the same amount and with the same appetite.

May occur:

Red vole (Clethrionomys glareolus). Body length 8-11 cm, tail length 4-6 cm; red fur. The vole nest is located in a hole under the surface of the earth or in a shelter on the ground. The red vole eats plants, seeds and invertebrates, damages the bark of young trees. Brings 3-5 cubs up to 3 times a year.

Arable vole (Microtus agrestis). Body length 10-12 cm, tail length 3-5 cm. The fur is brownish, more authentic and friable than that of the common vole. Arable vole makes its tunnels in the thick grass. It feeds mainly on plants; damages the bark of young trees.

Common vole (Microtus arvalis). Body length 9-12 cm, tail length up to 4 cm; the fur is gray. It lives in colonies, at a shallow depth it digs a complex ramified system of moves with a nesting chamber and pantries.

It feeds on plants and grain. It multiplies rapidly: in the summer every 3 weeks it brings up 13 cubs, which, while still feeding on mother's milk, can already mate. Many voles destroy predatory animals and birds.

Water vole, or water rat (Arvicola terrestris). The largest of the voles: body length 12-20 cm, tail length 6-13 cm; the color of the fur is variable (there are also black individuals).Lives in gardens, in fields and meadows, by the water (swims and dives well).

It feeds on the green parts of plants, seeds and root crops, the roots of young trees. A wide network of water rat moves with a nesting chamber and pantries is located directly below the surface of the soil. The female 3-5 times a year brings up to 14 cubs.

Forest mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus). Body length 9-11 cm, tail length 7-10 cm. Lives in forests, gardens, meadows and fields, digs a deep hole. The forest mouse moves irregularly, as does the yellow-throated mouse. It feeds on the green parts of plants and their seeds, insects.

Field mouse (Apodemus agrarius). Body length 8-12 cm, tail length 7-9 cm; a black stripe on the back is characteristic. Lives in forests, gardens, fields; found in barns in winter. It feeds on plants and earthworms. The female gives birth to 6-7 cubs up to 4 times a year.

House mouse (Mus musculus). Body length 8-11 cm, tail length 8-9 cm; has a strong specific smell. Lives in large families. It is found in gardens and fields, in homes. Eats almost any food - both plant and animal. Builds a nest from various burnt materials. In just three weeks, he carries up to 8 cubs; gives a lot of litters per year.

Pasyuk perfectly swims and dives, a network of shallow burrows digs in the ground. The gray rat is multinivorous, feeds on both plants and animals; carrier of many dangerous diseases. Deprived of the opportunity to escape, it attacks even large animals and people. It gives birth 2-3 times a year for 6-9 cubs.

Black rat (Rattus rattus). Body length 16-24 cm, tail length 19-24 cm; tail is longer than body. The fur is grayish brown or black. He climbs well, lives in houses; in summer, builds nests on trees in nature. It feeds mainly on plant foods. It reproduces less actively than the pasuk.

TOeuropean mouth, or common mole (Talpa europaea). Body length 13-15 cm, tail length up to 3 cm. Velvet black fur, tiny eyes, excellent sense of smell. Lives in almost any soil except dry sandy and too damp.

He also feeds on earthworms. He doesn’t gnaw the plants, but digs their roots, making his moves in the soil.

Physical method of struggle

Among the various physical methods of killing rodents, the most common is the use of traps and traps, which can be divided into two main types:

• live-traps - traps, tops
• slayers - dice and traps

Traps and traps are used both indoors and in undeveloped areas. Capture of rodents by arc traps is fundamentally different from trapping with baits in that it is based not on attracting animals, but on using the stereotype of their movements in the places they visit most often.

This method of killing rodents is safe for humans and pets. The positive aspects include the fact that the results of the use of fishing gears (i.e., effectiveness are detected (unlike chemical and bacteriological agents) immediately.

Due to objectivity and visibility, it is used not only for the destruction of rodents, but also when examining objects in order to establish the presence of rodents and their type.

The use of traps is not very suitable for the destruction of the rodent population, but it is suitable for the elimination of a small number of individuals that did not take the poisoned bait.The most effective trapping of rodents can be carried out if they are tamed for a long time to unguarded traps, updating the bait for 7-10 or more days, and then they are alerted and in a short time to catch.

Among other physical means of destruction, the use of electrical devices - "electroderatizers" deserves attention. Apparently, to protect against rodents objects where there are no people and animals, such electrical devices can be useful.

The mechanical means of extermination should also include the use of sticky masses for catching rodents. It is possible to recommend the use of EFM (environmentally friendly mousetraps). A mechanical means of fighting rodents is also filling their holes with water. This technique, in particular, is used to kill gophers. In this case, the greatest success is achieved by pouring boiling water.

Unfortunately, all methods known to date for exterminating rodents are inferior in their effectiveness not only to chemical, but also to biological methods of control, since they do not cause mass death of animals.

The undoubted advantage of the physical method of deratization is a high degree of selectivity in relation to a certain type, and besides, it does not lead to environmental pollution by pesticides. In general, the physical method is recommended to be combined with chemical and biological methods.

The use of ultrasonic rodent repellents is the most modern highly effective method of controlling rodents. For each type of rodent, a device has been developed that operates at a frequency specific to each animal. Devices do not harm people and pets.

Mechanical method

The use of special tools (traps, tops, etc.). The method has a fairly low percentage of efficiency and a very high level of injuries. Since the use of traps requires certain skills, in addition, rodents know about the tricks of people (this is the most ancient method) and carefully bypass the exposed crush.

They have a sufficiently thin surface so that when placed around the perimeter of the premises they do not stand out too much from the surface of the floor, false ceiling, etc. But the glue used has such viscous and durable properties that, stepping on a trap, the rodent does not have a chance to break away or run away with it.

Chemical method

The essence of the chemical method of deratization is the poisoning of rodents with toxic substances - rodenticides (from lat. Rodentis - gnawing and caedo - I kill). These substances act upon entry into the intestines or lungs (fumigants).

The forms of application of deratization drugs are diverse. These can be powders consisting of one preparation or of a mixture of poison with various inert fillers (talc, starch, road dust, etc.), solutions and suspensions, fat-based pastes, waxed briquettes, biscuits, crackers and other

By the nature of the origin, poisons are divided into plant and synthetic. Numerous preparations of synthetic origin are most widely used around the world, their main advantage is the ability to obtain large quantities of a standard and stable preparation, the relative availability and low cost of raw materials, and the high effect when they are used.

All synthetic rodepticides are combined into two large groups, each of which is characterized by the specific action of the drugs included in it on the animal organism: these are drugs of acute and chronic action (anticoagulants).

Acute poisons cause the death of rodents after a single eating of the bait. These include: sodium cremifluoride, barium carbonate, arsenic compounds, yellow phosphorus, zinc phosphide, thallium sulfate and other inorganic compounds, as well as organic plant poisons: strychnine, scylliroside (a preparation of red sea onion), sodium fluoroacetate (1080); organic synthetic poisons: rats, thiosemicarbazide, promurite, fluoroacetamide, barium fluoroacetate, monofluorine, glyptor, shoxin (norbomide), vacor (RH = 787), etc.

In order to overcome the reaction of secondary avoidance of poisoned bait, you should alternate the food base, attractants, as well as poisons. The best result of a bait with poisons is given in cases where rodents are first offered food without poison for some time, and then the same food with poison. This technique is called preliminary feeding.

Of the large group of poisons of acute action, zinc phosphide (ZmPa) is most common, which, getting into the stomach, reacts with hydrochloric acid and releases phosphorous hydrogen (PH3), which penetrates the blood, brain and acts on the respiratory center.

Poisons of chronic (cumulative) action are characterized by a long latent period, the slow development of the poisoning process with the regular introduction of very small doses into the body. These drugs accumulate (accumulate) in the body of the animal and gradually lead to significant biochemical and pathological changes and death.

The largest share among chronic poisons is made up of blood anticoagulants from the coumarin group: warfarin (zoocoumaria), coumachlor, dicumarol, etc. and the indadione: diphenacin, phentolacin, etc. The discovery in 1942 of the coumarin compound, and later the indadione, made a real revolution in deratization.

With a single ingestion of small amounts of these poisons into the rodent, the symptoms of poisoning practically do not appear, however, with multiple consumption of anticoagulants, their toxicity increases significantly as a result of the accumulation of poison in the body, causing disturbances in the blood coagulation system, which is accompanied by an increase in vascular permeability, hemorrhages in many internal organs and skin and subsequent death.

A relatively slow development of the effects of poisoning can be considered an equally important feature of anticoagulants, as a result of which conditioned-reflex connections do not form in rodents, i.e. they do not associate painful sensations with eating bait.

This primarily explains the lack of alertness to these drugs. The symptoms of poisoning, judging by the behavior of the animals, are not very painful and have little or no effect on their appetite.

Currently, the following methods are widely used in the practice of disinfestation:

Gassing - feeding rodents to the room or hole of poisons in a gaseous state.
Among all these methods, the most universal is the use of food poison baits.

Poisoned baits can conditionally be divided according to the moisture content in the food base into dry and moist, and the latter are eaten much better, but deteriorate faster. In all cases, only fresh, high-quality foods are best eaten.

Rodent eaten food basis of poisoned baits largely depends on the composition and abundance of feed in their usual habitat.

On objects with a uniform feed base, the most preferred is the food base, which makes up for the lack of individual components of their diet. In the meat processing plant and in the refrigerator, the animals experience a clear deficit of carbohydrates. The use of flour baits with sugar would free these objects from them.

In warehouses, grains, flour, cereals, rodents feed on high-calorie feed containing most of the necessary components, however, there is a lack of moisture, so the most effective are liquid baits - milk, water and sugar. As a rule, the addition of attractant to the food base (5-10% sugar or 3% vegetable oil) significantly improves its eatability.

After determining the type of rodents and finding out their habitats, the baits are laid out in the holes of the holes, bait boxes or openly. Poisoned baits are laid out in habitable, or so-called “residential holes”, i.e. in those holes and crevices that are used by rodents. The baits are laid out as deep as possible in the exits from the holes and crevices, put them in paper bags or “pounds”.

The layout of poisoned baits in bait boxes is as effective as the previous method. In addition, it is safe for others. Bait boxes should be clean, free from odors, and should not be painted.

The bait is placed at the bottom of the box. Boxes are placed near the rodent exit points, along their paths, which most often pass along the walls, in quiet, secluded places. 2-3 days after the bait is laid out, the boxes are checked, and if it turns out that rodents are eating the bait, then they add the same bait.

In warehouses and industrial premises, where there are few people and no pets, poisonous baits with zoocoumarin, ratindan and other rodenticides that are not dangerous to people and pets can be openly laid out. Lures are best placed in paper bags or “lumps”. Such “little ones” are left in the same places where the bait boxes are placed.

Pastes are a sticky composition based on petroleum jelly, rodenticide, attractants (vegetable oil) and talc. The ratio of these components in the paste may be different. They are used for the manufacture of poisonous coatings (exterminating sites), poisoned baits, coating the inlets of rodent holes.

Liquid Poisoned Lures. Rats absorb a large amount of moisture, and therefore, for example, water is used as bait. In places where rodents do not find water, place drinking bowls with water pollinated by rodenticides.Absorbing water pollinated by poison, rats swallow rodenticide.

Poisons used for pollination should not dissolve in water and be light (with a low relative density). Rodenticides, which are soluble in water, are not used in live baits, as rodents distinguish between toxic solutions and usually do not drink them.

Dusting. This method is based on the fact that animals passing through pollinated places stain fur, paws, and muzzle with poisonous powder. When rodents lick their outer integument, the poison enters the mouth and is then swallowed. When brushing, poison can enter the lungs.

Unlike the bait method, when success is largely determined by how well fed, rodents and how attracted by their bait, pollination is a more effective way, since the poison enters the body of both hungry and well-fed rodents. Of the rodenticides for pollination, zoocoumarin, ratindane, zinc phosphide are most suitable.

Exit from holes, trails, waste bins and other places where litter, bites are exposed to pollination. However, with insufficient dusting efficiency, this method leads to intense contamination of the surfaces, to the spread of the poison by animals and to the possibility of the poison getting into food products.

Significant lesser environmental pollution is obtained when using artificial shelters - boxes with holes or tubes filled with nesting material, sprayed with poison - straw, hay, cotton, paper. Artificial shelters themselves do not always attract rodents, so it is advisable to put bait in them.

Gasification. Many gases have been tested to control rodents: sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, chlorine, chloropicrin, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen phosphorus, ethylene oxide. All toxic gases caused the complete death of animals, provided that the animals could not escape from the poisoned zone.

The time of their death in this case ranged from several minutes to several hours. But these gases have the same high toxicity in relation to people and other animals, which requires very high costs and efforts to ensure safety during processing.

Before gasification of buildings, people are removed from them, production is stopped and all openings are carefully sealed. Gas treatment cannot be carried out if there are residential buildings and enterprises nearby. The second disadvantage of aeration is the lack of residual action after treatment.

Currently, gasification is used only for processing special objects: ships, planes, wagons, elevators, less often refrigerators. The undoubted advantage of this method is the ability of gases to instantly destroy almost all rodents in enclosed spaces and other containers with complex internal architecture, where the use of other methods is impossible or inefficient.