Rodents have been around for more than 10,000 years. That’s right, we are talking back to the Stone Age when mammoths and saber toothed tigers were still roaming around. Right around that time, humans started coming out of their hunting/gathering stage and started agriculture. With agriculture came foods being stored. Stored foods meant pests beginning to take advantage of that food source.
That’s all fun info to break out at your next neighborhood gathering. What does it really mean though? It means we have been fighting rodents for literally thousands of years. If we had THE answer, humans would have gotten rid of rodents. Spoiler alert: we haven’t.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been advances in rodent control since then. One of the newer rodent control methods on the market is birth control. The concept is pretty simple: rats eat the bait, it gives them a dose of birth control, they don’t reproduce, and populations go down. Easy, right?
An absolutely brilliant article written by two well-qualified science professionals about this was just published (Aug. 13, 2024).
TLDR – a single tool can not fix all your rodent problems.
They evaluated studies on rodent control and specifically looked at using birth control. The first issue is that it doesn’t kill rats. For some accounts, this may be a benefit, especially if customers are averse to that. It (theoretically) reduces the overall population of rats in an area over time because of lower birth rates and survivorship. This method is not going to be fast and it certainly won’t be a great option when rats are inside a structure, wreaking havoc on stored foods and the structure. It’s kind of like having termites that are damaging your house and the “control” is to let them keep going but every few months they do a little less damage to the house.
Speaking of that damage, rodent birth control won’t eliminate all the rats in the area. To be fair, neither will most methods! Because it isn’t killing them, there will always be some rodents in the area. Under ideal conditions, let’s say it does eliminate all the rats in a backyard. Great! Except now, there is this open space that rodents from the surrounding areas will move into and take advantage of. It’s much like using parasitic wasps for fly control. It can reduce the fly population, but there will always be some small residual population of flies/rats and immigration from surrounding areas.
Like humans, stop taking the birth control and you can get pregnant. It’s easy if you work in a zoo and can sneak the drugs into the animal food. If you work in the wild, it’s like importing four hippos to Columbia and wondering why there are now at least 80 and that population keeps growing. Getting them to eat daily birth control is nearly impossible. We won’t even get into the cost of these products.
Most importantly, the authors point out that it doesn’t address the underlying conditions that are causing the rat problems. I can pull up multiple scientific studies that show food availability is the limiting factor in rodent populations. Reducing food sources stresses rodents out, lowers their reproduction, and shortens their lifespans. If there is ample food (and habitat), why would a rat even go to a station with the birth control bait in it? We know that even with rodenticide baits, they become attractive when there isn’t food in the immediate area and rodents are forced to venture out and find it.
Still, many cities are pouncing on this product. News outlets are touting it as the “fix” to the city’s rat problems. I haven’t seen the actual programs these cities may be using, but I doubt any city can be effectively covered with enough bait stations with the birth control bait to impact enough rats. Strangely enough, I haven’t seen any follow up articles on any of these sites. Weird, right?
Now before a few people get all bent out of shape, I’m not saying this isn’t a valid means of control. For SOME areas and always with all other possible rodent IPM measures added in. There will be some accounts that all of the above drawbacks are either addressed or aren’t important to that client.
If you have rodent issues you are dealing with, want more quality rodent training, or just really like talking about rodents, contact us. It may be cheesy, but we really like talking about rodent control.
Lagniappe - if you don't read the article, at least watch this.
Ubran Pest Consulting
Comments