Efficacy of Eight Anticoagulant Food Baits in House Mouse (Mus musculus): Comparison of Choice and No-Choice Laboratory Testing Approaches

House mouse (Mus musculus) is a cosmopolitan pest in agricultural facilities, commodity stores and rural and urban environments. It is regularly controlled by anticoagulant-based baits. Since the number of registered active ingredients is limited, the producers are trying to develop new formulations with increased tamper-resistance, attractiveness and palatability. Reliable and economical methods for laboratory screening/testing are needed. Therefore, this work compared simple no-choice with more economically demanding choice feeding tests for laboratory evaluation of efficacy of rodenticide anticoagulant-based preparations in wild populations of house mouse. We analyzed mice survival and bait intake of the various rodenticide commercial preparations differing in a toxic active substance (warfarin, bromadiolone, brodifacoum, difethialone) and nontoxic food lure components. In most cases, we found insignificant differences in survival of house mice treated with eight test baits within the no-choice and choice feeding tests. We rejected the tested hypothesis that there would be significant differences in all tested preparations for two different testing approaches

Gel Carriers for Plant Extracts and Synthetic Pesticides in Rodent and Arthropod Pest Control: An Overview

Insecticides and rodenticides form the basis of integrated pest management systems worldwide. As pest resistance continues to increase and entire groups of chemical active ingredients are restricted or banned, manufacturers are looking for new options for more effective formulations and safer application methods for the remaining pesticide ingredients. In addition to new technological adaptations of mainstream formulations in the form of sprays, fumigants, and dusts, the use of gel formulations is becoming increasingly explored and employed. This article summarizes information on the current and potential use of gel (including hydrogel) and paste formulations against harmful arthropods or rodents in specific branches of pest management in the agricultural, food, stored product, structural wood, urban, medical, and public health areas. Due to the worldwide high interest in natural substances, part of the review was devoted to the use of gels for the formulation of pesticide substances of botanical origin, such as essential or edible oils. Gels as emerging formulation of so called “smart insecticides” based on molecular iRNA disruptors are discussed

Management of the Common Vole in the Czech Lands: Historical and Current Perspectives

The integrated management of a serious agricultural pest, the common vole (Microtus arvalis), should be based on modern and empirically proven approaches. The aim of this paper was to map the historical development of the monitoring and control practices of the common vole in the Czech Republic (CR) territory. Published records of vole population outbreaks and heavy crop damage have been documented in the Czech literature since the turn of the 20th century, and even in crops planted in highly fragmented and diversified agricultural landscapes. In the CR, systematic state monitoring was introduced in 1955. In the 1930’s, there were more than 100 various rodent preparations against the common vole, which were formulated as smoke generators, gases, baits, dusts, toxic mushy mass, and insecticide sprays. Currently, there are only six preparations with three active ingredients registered in the CR. Zinc phosphide is the only active ingredient that has been used from the 1940s to the present, whereas anticoagulants were banned for vole control in 2011 owing to the high environmental risks. The poisoning of nontarget animals by rodenticides is not a new phenomenon tied to synthetic pesticides; poisoning by botanical extracts (strychnine) was documented more than 100 years ago. This review may provide both historical lessons for current practice and new incentives for future research