Integrated Pest Management (IPM) at its best!

raised questions about the sustainability of the current control measures, and prompted our technician to seek the advice of service manager Dan Walker. Control points containing traps installed to the site perimeter were catching high numbers of adult and juvenile rats, originating from adjacent unoccupied land. It was clear to technician Peter Jeeves that despite good catch rates, it was only a matter of time before the high levels of activity developed into a resident population. The use of rodenticide was considered, however the design of the site would make it impossible to prevent further ingress, and as such the process could become ongoing, and in breach of the code of practice set out by the 'Campaign for the responsible use of rodenticides' (CRRU) https://www.thinkwildlife.org/code-of-best-practice/crru-code/.

Dan agreed with the assessment and visited the site to investigate potential alternative and sustainable control measures. The main ingress route for rodents onto the site was through a border on the site's North perimeter created by a strip of overgrown land next to a dual carriageway, eventually leading to a railway embankment. Dan arranged for 20 linear metres of aluminium sheeting to be installed to create a hard border, into which he created 5 no. 70 mm openings and fitted a rat box containing a trap to each one. The border itself remains effective as a barrier as the rats do not attempt to go over the top, given that the path of least resistance filters them into the awaiting traps. Rat activity on site has now dropped completely, the customer is happy and best of all we have avoided the risk of introducing potentially harmful products into a wild environment.