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carine

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Posted 04 August 2011 - 07:36 AM

Can anybody share ur corrective action have been taken when find out high infestation level of rat problem in ur factory compound??



GMO

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Posted 04 August 2011 - 09:37 AM

Increase baiting, remove harbourage (eg cut back plants, remove waste), remove food and water sources, increase technologist visits, check proofing to make sure they don't come in! Never had a really bad infestation though.



Foodworker

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Posted 04 August 2011 - 10:55 AM

Don't forget to evaluate the extent of any contamination/damage risks to your products and materials as well.

You may need to quarantine/destroy/recall products.

The only experience I have had of a major rodent infestation was several years ago when a company moved some stock into a subcontracted warehouse at short notice which had a major mouse problem.

It took weeks to erradicate and the complaints came in for about 2 months afterwards.



GMO

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Posted 04 August 2011 - 11:27 AM

Good point. I was assuming it was all still outside.



Dr Ajay Shah

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Posted 09 August 2011 - 07:26 AM

I agree with the comments posted by GMO and Food worker both of which are valid points. However, one has to be cereful as tohow many baits one places as rats are quite smart animals. Overbaiting will not necessarilily get rid of them. The pest control contarctor should be able to guide you on the problems at hand as they are the experts.

One should build them out, starve themn out and keep them out!!

:rolleyes:


Dr Ajay Shah.,
BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, PGCE(FE)
Managing Director & Principal Consultant
AAS Food Technology Pty Ltd
www.aasfood.com


CR HIDERF

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Posted 09 August 2011 - 12:12 PM

Can anybody share ur corrective action have been taken when find out high infestation level of rat problem in ur factory compound??


Hi,

I have had to deal with a similar issue althought this was based at a storage site that held peanuts, dried sunflower seeds etc. The rats had plenty of food and that was the main issue. With our contracted Pest control company we improved proofing around the building and used water baits inside the building. This worked because the rats stayed in the building for both food and water with the later poisoning them.
We also used external bait traps becuase the site was close to a drain. I suspect this is what your local pest control team would attempt and they are the experts so give them a call.


Antores

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Posted 09 August 2011 - 01:06 PM

I agree that increasing baits wont necessary help. The best approach is an Integrated Pest Management System, which instead of focusing on “killing” the pest, it focuses on controlling the cause of the infestation.I recommend to hire a professional company to do an assessment, why are those pests being attracted to your plant? (e.g.Poor sanitation practices, exposed food, harborage places.., etc) and how are they gaining entrance? (e.g. unsealed doors/windows, drainage, power lines, roof,,,) Bottom line, if you do not find the cause and eliminate it, focusing just on killing won’t be effective.

As an example, on my personal experience, we had a mice issue in a cold room which walls were covered with insulating foam, the floor was concrete and the walls sheet metal, but the junction between floor and walls were not sealed before the foam was sprayed. The mice found their way digging thru the insulation foam and thru the small junction between the floor and walls. We had to remove the insulation at the floor level, install a fine mesh to seal the junction and re-insulate. We also foundthat mice activity were higher due to a long period of hot dry summer, making water and food resources very low in their environment, and our cool, humid and food-loaded cold room irresistible! In this case external food and water baits would also help since the mice will "feed" before gaining entrance.

Edited by Antores, 09 August 2011 - 01:09 PM.


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dgsorg

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Posted 18 August 2011 - 07:40 PM

Remember that improper or excessive baiting can actually attract rodents and introduce new or more contaminants (rodenticide and undiscovered dead rodents) to your facility!



Bawdy

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Posted 18 August 2011 - 10:55 PM

I used to work for a company in rural Australia and where they frequently have rodent issues, and every 15 years or so we saw them in almost palgue proportions. They can be very persistent and relentless, and can overun the "normal" integrated pest control methods. We usually received advanced warnings of increasing mouse populations ( the local government, agricultural institutes, the pest control service, local farmers etc). But last season they got caught at one of our their storage sites and we had a major issue with mice before we knew it. Cost a lot of money in dumped product and time.

The season was so bad that you could see them running over the roads at night like a living carpet at times. I have seen them literally make pyramids of themselves to allow others to climb over barriers and concrete backward angled skirts and infest grain silos, which probably, for obvious reason, have some the best product protection infrastructures around. So dont underestimate the threat of mice in large numbers, they can easily overwhelm the best IPM system.

They implemeted the following actions which were very succesful in resolving the issue for them, they may or may not be of some practical value to you, but i will share them anyway.

  • Audited the storage facility for ingress points and repaired as we could. The building was old so there were no doubts ingress points that only the mice could see.
  • Replenishing/inspecting the external bait stations every 4 days (the pest control company trained one of our operators on how to do it, and provided the baits etc). Yes the baits themselves could be a source of attraction, but once they are in the facility, they are already there. Like i wrote above, they were literally coming in waves, seeking shelter and food, baits or no baits. Kept records to monitor activity, and altered inspection/replenishment as dictated.
  • Stacked the pallets of sensitive materials (fliour etc) on 44 gallon drums away from walls and racks to prevent the mice climbing and jumping across. We had to manually sort through the pallets of products and dump any affected stocks before re-stacking and putting onto the drums.
  • Flooded the internal areas with traps, which were numbered, mapped and secured, checked twice a day with records kept to monitor the rodent numbers, and the succes of the program. Using baits internally was not an option that i would allow, who knows where the rodent would go to die.
  • Pulled everyting out of the area, and cleaned it thoroughly, removed any old cardboard etc. The area also stored old archived paper records in a cupboard in the back, these were removed and burnt, and the cupboards them selves dismantled. It was surprising to see how many mice had made homes in the records, not somewhere i would normally have thought to check, but is now high on my own list of things to check and to recommend a frequent clean out and to prevent their buiild up where i can. Can be difficult as some managers really want to hold on to old records!!!!
  • Purchased large sealable plastic storage (capable of holding 1000kgs of bagged dry beans product) and again after sorting, stored ingredients inside. Which annoyed the operators, but saved a lot of product, and was only temporary anyway.
  • reviewed records every day, to "move" the pest control program if and as required. We appointed an operator as our internal pest control monitor whose job it was to monitor the traps, inspect the stocks for signs of activity, and report, and offer sugegstions.
Within a week to a week and a half we had the situation back under control, and we had other businesses coming to us to see what we had done. we still had lots of mice around the facility (as evidenced by the bait station reports), but the incidence of stock loss fell to zero, and the incidence of catching mice internally on traps fell to about one every 3rd day or so, with no evidence of mice activity seen, droppigns etc.

Hopefully some of these suggestions may help, it may not, it really depends upon each site and the circumstances and environment it presents.

Paul.



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Charles.C

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 04:29 AM

Dear Bawdy,

Awesome recitation, shades of Frank Herbert, Stephen King and Hitchcock rolled together. :thumbup:

On a somewhat lower scale, my own favorite targets from, perhaps the (upwardly mobile) rodent's POV might be a mixture of Wine, Women and Song, eg -

Water source, preferably stagnant, eg polluted, small, slow, canal. Or an adjacent bottled drinking water factory.
Nutritional production but let's not be too fussy if there's a nice, casual, open-air, in-house cafeteria for the personnel (and visitors).

Lovely dry, warm, sheltered, undisturbed, impenetrable location. Rooms with piles of abandoned machinery are number Uno, foam clad, ancient, storage rooms 4*, cereal business thrown in, a penthouse rating.

Green management so all the lights are off at night, minimal internal patrolling, it's play-time without the singing !

Sadly, the reality is far less humorous, eg the olden song "Ring a Ring O'Rosies..." might well be the rodent anthem.

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C




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