The possible effects of bait container design on mouse feeding activity in real-world structural baiting situations

Tamper-resistant rodenticide bait containers are used extensively around the world for a multitude of rodent pest management efforts. A large portion of their use, however, is for protecting industrial food and pharmaceutical plants from commensal rodent invasions. Yet, no research exists as to the possible effects of bait container “architecture” on the feeding activity of the targeted rodents. This study compared two common, yet architecturally different, tamper-resistant bait containers for feeding and general activity as measured by deposited feces and feeding consumption on installed rodenticide bait blocks. The study, primarily involving house mice, was conducted over a 17-week period in a real-world baiting situation along the exterior perimeter of an industrial grain processing plant. The low-profile bait container, as represented by the Multiplex™ brand, exhibited a 17.8% greater amount of fecal pellets and a 15.4% heavier feeding index compared to a high-profile container, as represented by the Bell Laboratories Protecta container