Are Your Pets Safe From Pest Control Products?

The active ingredient in rodent control baits, bromadiolone, has put pet owners all over the nation in fear of secondary poisonings to their pets. Secondary pet poisonings can be caused by direct or indirect ingestion of baits. An indirect poisoning can be caused by your pet ingesting a rat or rodent that has consumed toxic bait. However, scientists have proven that normal distribution of rodenticides and pesticides during a pest control program, the risk of secondary poisonings to pets is extremely low.

Basically, the risk depends on the correlation between the amount ingested and the size and weight of the animal. Also, the poisonings are dependent on the pet's sensitivity to the active ingredient in the rodenticide. Fortunately, a single rodent cannot consume enough bait to kill a pet that has ingested the dead rodent; therefore, the pet would have to eat multiple rats to reach a dangerous dose. Only a steady diet of eating the bait-filled rats will cause your companion animal to reach higher toxic levels from the bait.

But exactly how many bait-filled rodents would a cat or dog have to eat to reach a lethal dosage?

A study has shown that a 22 lb. dog would have to consume 77 ounces of bromadiolone (nearly 5 pounds) to be poisoned. A single rat consumes a maximum of less than an ounce of food (even less for mice), so the 22 lb. dog would have to find and eat 77 rats that are completely stuffed with bait.

A 4.4 lb. cat needs 35 ounces of bait product or nearly 3 dozen rats stuffed with bait for secondary poisonings to take effect.

Nonetheless, secondary poisonings are not impossible - the situation should be considered when a rodent control plan is in effect at your home. Each pet has their own sensitivity level to baits and can be different from the numbers revealed in the study.

A good pest control company takes precautions to protect your pets and other non-targeted animals (hawks, owls, etc.).

Your rodent technician should come out weekly during the rodent control plan to quickly remove dead rodents and provide maintenance to traps and bait stations. This will hinder any chances of pets obtaining bait-filled rodents or unsafe traps. Rodent technicians should monitors the quantity of bait placed to maximize the effectiveness against controlling the rodent population while minimizing the chance for excess bait to get outside the box.

Tamper-proof bait stations are a plus. They securely store the bait product inside, therefore the baits are only directly accessible to the rodents. A good rodent control company will not have you worrying about harm from chemicals to their families or pets.