Rats at Waste Re-Cycling Plant

In Pests

PEST UK has just completed the 3rd visit of a 4 visit rat treatment at the Waste Re Cycling Plant in Reading. On the first visit we re baited existing baits and then installed 40 more in the areas where rats were able to access the bait. As I said in previous blogs, the previous company had put bait boxes around the perimeter in exposed places (rats don’t like crossing open places) which only exposed a very, very small proportion of the rat population to the poison baits. On the second visit (one week later) a high percentage of the baits had been taken many with full takes.
In normal situations full takes are not desirable but internally we were using Brodifacoum which only requires very small amounts to kill many rats. So instead of large bait points we laid more smaller bait points. On the second visit we found many dead rats and workers at the plant reported seeing many dead and dyeing rats. On the third (one week later) much of the site had not activity on the bait points. Full takes were restricted to small patches internally. There was one problem area which will be easily sorted providing we get co operation from the management of the site. The problem is that there are two bays where general rubbish is dumped and stored before being transported to landfill. The rubbish pile is not emptied completely which means rats can live and feed within the tip without coming into contact with the baits. The nearest baits are placed either side of the rubbish in concrete A Frames. If the site management allow the bays to empty one or twice a week then the rats will seek cover in the A frames and then eat the bait and die. This needs to be part of a regular program. Next week will be the 4th and final visit of the treatment and we expect to find even less rat activity. We are quite proud of the success so far at dealing with Rats at this Waste Re-Cycling Plant – a particularly challenging site.

Rats – BPCA Advice