Pest Management Professional, June 2016

Eagle Pest soars to success with Terad 3 Manassas Va based Eagle Pest Elimination a family owned business founded in 1993 has a lot of expertise with rodent accounts But one residential account had the team looking to try something outside its normal treatment plans The account was a local farm that uses a converted granary from the late 1700s as a chicken coop In this rubble foundation structure a massive Norway rat issue had been growing for several years The husband and wife who owned the farm had previously attempted do it yourself control measures but conceded that they needed the assistance of a professional The farm is home to what one might expect ADVERTORIAL chickens turkeys sheep and horses but it also hosts a family of endangered barn owls and is frequented by a small group of bald eagles explains Tom Harris technical director for Eagle Pest In addition there are a few cats that prowl the grounds and three dogs one of which will put just about everything he finds in his mouth The homeowners told Harris that they estimated about 50 rats were on the property Harris says that was an incredibly conservative number Rats were seen lounging in the hay of the chicken coop running the rafters and scurrying outside to steal chicken feed all during the early afternoon he adds The building shook when you banged on the sides Exclusion wasnt a practical option and the homeowners agreed control was going to take a Herculean effort They gave Harris the permission to do the following expand his treatment focus onto adjacent buildings increase the service frequency originally discussed and relocate non target animals elsewhere on the property With the safety of non targets at top of mind Harris reached out to Brian Hensel a technical representative with Bell Laboratories Hensel had been a guest speaker at a recent training seminar Harris had attended I contacted Brian to get his thoughts on how to secure the area especially against my two species of birds of prey both protected species and one overly gluttonous canine Harris quips But Brian shocked me by suggesting he visit the farm directly with me the following day This was incredibly generous of him as the closest he was scheduled to come to the property was about two or three hours out of his way With the owners permission Harris and Hensel walked the property and reviewed Harris proposed program They made note of the numerous rub marks chew throughs runs and other signs of rodentactive areas Harris had initially wanted to use a first generation bait to control TOM HARRIS any risk of secondary poisoning of non target animals but Hensel proposed a different option Terad 3 AG BLOX a rodenticide registered by the U S Environmental Protection Agency EPA and listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute OMRI for use in organic production Featuring an active ingredient of Vitamin D 3 the product controls Norway rats roof rats and house mice yet reduces the risk of secondary poisoning It also poses low toxicity to birds removing the homeowners concerns for their owls and eagles The homeowners agreed in writing to keep their dogs away from the treated area as a precaution and thus a low risk high success program was cleared of its hurdles Eagle Pest Elimination was able to treat within three visits For the initial visit Harris and his crew installed 120 Terad 3 blocks in tamperresistant bait stations The second visit was six days later where he found that approximately 80 blocks were completely consumed Ten days later I returned a third time to find approximately 40 blocks completely consumed he reports I must be honest I was somewhat surprised by the speed at which we appeared to gain control Harris adds noting that the account is ahead of schedule on the rat populations Sightings are down drastically and the building no longer vibrates when you open the door all this without any collateral injury to the other animals in the environment Harris says the cooperation of the homeowners combined with the expertise and support of Hensel went a long way toward the programs success I hope to be able to scale down the program within the next few services and further limit any exposure concerns by removing stations he concludes Already the peripheral stations furthest from the coop have stopped showing signs of activity 3699 Kinsman Blvd Madison WI 53704 1 608 241 0202 www belllabs com