Apr 1, 2012 – Take Away The Food Resources??
QUESTION:
I have an old dog food plant that has several holes and openings and we are helping with the exclusion methods to get rid of the rodent problem that they have had for a number of years. We do fumigate the plant and the mice count is down for 1-2 months and then it spikes back up. I am planning on trying the Detex Blox with Lumitrack to see how it will work for me. Do you have any tips as to how to start up the program with this? Maybe start at 1 corner of the building and over a period of a month check the entire building? What are your thoughts on this product and a strategy to get rid of the mice at this plant?
ANSWER:
I will admit that I cringed at the words "old" and "dog food plant" in your question Randy. Pet food plants that I have visited are not necessarily maintained at the same standards of manufacturing plants for human foods. Spillage is higher, profit margins may be less so less money is spent on building maintenance, etc. And, if it's an older building the image in my mind is one that could be pretty porous on the outside, with plenty of openings to allow mice to enter. I think though, that in the long run the exclusion will always have to be the long term goal. Every opening on the exterior that you are able to close permanently means less opportunities for the mice to enter easily, and if you limit the number of entry points you can then focus more attention on these for capturing mice either outside or inside. If all the attention focuses on the inside and the kill of the mice after they enter, it could be akin to holding back the ocean. Those killed just mean more can come on in and find resources.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I have an old dog food plant that has several holes and openings and we are helping with the exclusion methods to get rid of the rodent problem that they have had for a number of years. We do fumigate the plant and the mice count is down for 1-2 months and then it spikes back up. I am planning on trying the Detex Blox with Lumitrack to see how it will work for me. Do you have any tips as to how to start up the program with this? Maybe start at 1 corner of the building and over a period of a month check the entire building? What are your thoughts on this product and a strategy to get rid of the mice at this plant?
ANSWER:
I will admit that I cringed at the words "old" and "dog food plant" in your question Randy. Pet food plants that I have visited are not necessarily maintained at the same standards of manufacturing plants for human foods. Spillage is higher, profit margins may be less so less money is spent on building maintenance, etc. And, if it's an older building the image in my mind is one that could be pretty porous on the outside, with plenty of openings to allow mice to enter. I think though, that in the long run the exclusion will always have to be the long term goal. Every opening on the exterior that you are able to close permanently means less opportunities for the mice to enter easily, and if you limit the number of entry points you can then focus more attention on these for capturing mice either outside or inside. If all the attention focuses on the inside and the kill of the mice after they enter, it could be akin to holding back the ocean. Those killed just mean more can come on in and find resources.
You are highly unlikely to limit their foods indoors, so this could be one stumbling block using any kind of rodent bait. Getting them interested in the bait so they eat it may be difficult. The tasty, high protein nature of dry pet foods makes them great foods for rodents. Perhaps using a liquid rodenticide on the interior could get more attention than other kinds of baits. The point behind the Detex Blox with Biomarker is that the poop of rodents that have eaten this non-toxic bait will fluoresce under UV light, so in theory you can more quickly move around the interior with a portable UV light and spot the glowing pellets. This can help direct you to where the activity is current and even perhaps point out a path back to where the rodents may be harboring. It certainly is worth a try, and again the possible downfall would be all that competing food.
Since you already are making the effort at exclusion I would continue the focus on this. Since this is clearly a well established population of mice living in and around this building they are accustomed to coming and going as needed. Each little change you make puts the mice a bit more under stress, and when they are stressed they move about more and may encounter the control materials you put in place. Along with the Detex I think I would use a LOT of traps, perhaps within stations so they stay clean. Glue traps in particular could get a layer of dust on them in a plant like this. The results of the trapping could also indicate where the mice may be coming from.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
