[01] Muhammad Sarwar, Nuclear Institute for Agriculture & Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

Rodents mainly rats and mice are some of the most troublesome and damaging pests in the world. They live and thrive in a wide variety of climates and conditions, and are often found in and around homes, buildings, farms, gardens, open fields and storages. They eat and contaminate food, damage structures and property, and transmit parasites and diseases to the animals and humans. Rodents specially house rat Rattus rattus (Gray) and house mouse Mus musculus Linnaeus can cause damage to grains intended for human’s consumption, and by contamination with faeces and urine. Their presence can be detected due to squeaking and scratching noises, odour, droppings, urine marks, burrows, damage as torn bags, spoiled grains, chewed window and door sills, feet and tail marks on dusty floors, shelves or table tops, and grease like marks. The management of grains in storage to prevent rodents damage is just as important, or more so, than managing the crop while it is growing in the field. There is no way to get rid of rodents completely, however, they can be controlled through a program of prevention (keeping food in rat-proof containers, keeping left-over food in bins with tightly fitted lids, and do not pile rubbish, timber or bricks near grain stores) and destruction (remigration, trapping and poisoning). For preventing losses from rodents feeding, growers should implement a sound integrated pest management (IPM) program in their grain bins. An integrated rodent management program involves, removing of potential harbourages, preventing rodent entry by effective structural proofing, responding immediately to signs of their activity, grain bin sanitation, periodic grain monitoring, residual pesticides treatment for long-term storage, grain fumigation, using small amounts of poison bait at various locations as a last resort and protecting non-target animals from baits consumption.

Rodents, Damage, Storage, Stored Grain, Pest, Control, Rat, Mouse

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