Jan 26, 2012 – Keeping Bait Tasty
QUESTION:
Does tracking powder placed in a rodent bait station affect the rodent's attraction to the Contrac Blox bait? Is there any rodent bait that is effective against slugs and snails to keep them from eating the bait? These slugs and snails are having a field day on my rodent bait placements.
ANSWER:
Slugs and Snails just love rodent baits, and particularly formulations like pellets or meal, which they can feed on easily. One suggestion would be to only use paraffin baits, which you may already be doing since you specify Contrac Blox as one bait in use. The anticoagulants and other active ingredients in rodent baits will not affect slugs or snails, so no options there I'm afraid. What you could do would be to use a slug and snail bait on the outside around the stations to attract the slugs and snails to that bait first, and hopefully to kill them before they go to the rodent station. A liquid snail bait like Deadline might be a good option, as this can be dribbled on the soil as directed by the Label and it will not pose any temptation to rodents but will be highly effective against the snails or slugs that feed on it. If these stations are on bare soil then a meal bait for the slugs and snails may be a good option as well, particularly if you can use it around harborage sites where these mollusks are hiding, killing them as they come out at night and long before they get to the rodent stations.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
Does tracking powder placed in a rodent bait station affect the rodent's attraction to the Contrac Blox bait? Is there any rodent bait that is effective against slugs and snails to keep them from eating the bait? These slugs and snails are having a field day on my rodent bait placements.
ANSWER:
Slugs and Snails just love rodent baits, and particularly formulations like pellets or meal, which they can feed on easily. One suggestion would be to only use paraffin baits, which you may already be doing since you specify Contrac Blox as one bait in use. The anticoagulants and other active ingredients in rodent baits will not affect slugs or snails, so no options there I'm afraid. What you could do would be to use a slug and snail bait on the outside around the stations to attract the slugs and snails to that bait first, and hopefully to kill them before they go to the rodent station. A liquid snail bait like Deadline might be a good option, as this can be dribbled on the soil as directed by the Label and it will not pose any temptation to rodents but will be highly effective against the snails or slugs that feed on it. If these stations are on bare soil then a meal bait for the slugs and snails may be a good option as well, particularly if you can use it around harborage sites where these mollusks are hiding, killing them as they come out at night and long before they get to the rodent stations.
Another possibility would be to place copper strips at the entrances to the rodent stations, as copper, for some reason, appears to cause some electric sensation as the mollusks slime onto it, deterring them from going further. You should be able to find copper in either screens or rolls of foil.
As far as tracking powders, no, using the powders within a rodent station should not affect the attraction to the bait. I assume you are talking about toxic tracking powder to kill them as opposed to a non-toxic powder used for monitoring. These powders work best on mice, which constantly stop to lick their feet and groom themselves, ingesting the powder from their feet. Even zinc phosphide tracking powder, with its potential repellent taste, does not seem to stop mice from ingesting it during grooming. Anticoagulant powders would be tasteless to the rodents and not cause them to feel ill for several days.
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