This article was originally published in the October 2019 issue of Pest Management Professional magazine.
Article
Rodent Battles: Smaller footprint
Selontra® rodent bait provides non-anticoagulant solution for West Coast company
With locations across California, O’Connor Pest Control provides rodent services to both residential and commercial properties. There’s an abundance of fruit, trees, shrubs and vegetation in the state, making it the perfect grounds for rodent activity, says General Manager Dave Watkins.
To combat these rodent populations, the company started using Selontra rodent bait about 18 months ago. “We’ve really had great success with it,” reports Watkins, who is based out of O’Connor’s headquarters in Camarillo, Calif. “The rodents have been really receptive to it.”
Selontra rodent bait has a low risk of secondary, non-target poisoning to birds and mammals. The stop-feed action of the active ingredient cholecalciferol also means rodents only eat the lethal dose.1 “It saves us money in the long run,” Watkins says. “If they eat enough to get a lethal dose and then stop feeding on it, we aren’t having the expense of replacing bait that doesn’t need to be replaced.”
At O’Connor’s office in Santa Barbara, Calif., Selontra has become the No.1 rodent bait for residential accounts. “They have a unique vegetation there — close to the ocean, mountains and creeks. It’s ideal for rodents,” Watkins says.
Selontra rodent bait came through for one Santa Barbara residential account with thick vegetation. The team was using another rodenticide initially, but they couldn’t control roof rats (Rattus rattus), which is the type of rodent they face 75 percent of the time. “The supervisor started using Selontra, and got great results. It knocked the population down to minimal activity,” Watkins reports. “He really became a true believer in Selontra and how it brought definite results.”
Today, O’Connor uses Selontra rodent bait company-wide and enjoys both the results and the ability to provide customers with reassurance and peace of mind. “It really fits well into our arsenal of baits we use,” Watkins says. “It’s just been fantastic.”
1 Prescott, C.V., El-Amin, Vusa, and Smith, R.H. Calciferols and Bait Shyness in the Laboratory Rat. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Vertebrate Pest Conference 1992. Paper 64.