Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards
Roof rats ( Rattus rattus ) are common pests of tree fruit and nut orchards in California. Tracking tunnels are an effective and practical tool for monitoring changes in roof rat numbers in orchard systems, but they rely on the use of attractive baits to draw in rats to the tracking surface. The ide...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:8736cf44d649414b85209ea125bcb70b 2023-05-15T18:05:00+02:00 Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards Kallista N. Wales Ryan Meinerz Roger A. Baldwin 2021-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122417 https://doaj.org/article/8736cf44d649414b85209ea125bcb70b EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/12/2417 https://doaj.org/toc/2073-4395 doi:10.3390/agronomy11122417 2073-4395 https://doaj.org/article/8736cf44d649414b85209ea125bcb70b Agronomy, Vol 11, Iss 2417, p 2417 (2021) attractant citrus peanut butter Rattus rattus roof rat soft bait Agriculture S article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122417 2022-12-31T16:20:45Z Roof rats ( Rattus rattus ) are common pests of tree fruit and nut orchards in California. Tracking tunnels are an effective and practical tool for monitoring changes in roof rat numbers in orchard systems, but they rely on the use of attractive baits to draw in rats to the tracking surface. The identification of baits that are both attractive and readily available would be of great assistance for monitoring changes in roof rat numbers within agricultural fields. Therefore, we tested the attractiveness of a soft bait (Liphatech Rat and Mouse Attractant TM ), a wax block (Liphatech NoTox TM ), peanut butter, and a control (i.e., no bait applied) to roof rats when applied within tracking tunnels. We did not observe a difference in visitation to any of the tested attractants, although all attractants yielded greater visitation rates than control tunnels. However, tracking tunnels without any attractant were still visited at a relatively high rate, indicating the tracking tunnel is attractive to roof rats. As such, monitoring tools that provide shelter may increase detectability, although this would need to be verified. Regardless, all three food-based lures we tested increased the attractiveness of tracking tunnels and could be used to increase visitation to these monitoring devices. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rattus rattus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Agronomy 11 12 2417 |
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collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
attractant citrus peanut butter Rattus rattus roof rat soft bait Agriculture S |
spellingShingle |
attractant citrus peanut butter Rattus rattus roof rat soft bait Agriculture S Kallista N. Wales Ryan Meinerz Roger A. Baldwin Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards |
topic_facet |
attractant citrus peanut butter Rattus rattus roof rat soft bait Agriculture S |
description |
Roof rats ( Rattus rattus ) are common pests of tree fruit and nut orchards in California. Tracking tunnels are an effective and practical tool for monitoring changes in roof rat numbers in orchard systems, but they rely on the use of attractive baits to draw in rats to the tracking surface. The identification of baits that are both attractive and readily available would be of great assistance for monitoring changes in roof rat numbers within agricultural fields. Therefore, we tested the attractiveness of a soft bait (Liphatech Rat and Mouse Attractant TM ), a wax block (Liphatech NoTox TM ), peanut butter, and a control (i.e., no bait applied) to roof rats when applied within tracking tunnels. We did not observe a difference in visitation to any of the tested attractants, although all attractants yielded greater visitation rates than control tunnels. However, tracking tunnels without any attractant were still visited at a relatively high rate, indicating the tracking tunnel is attractive to roof rats. As such, monitoring tools that provide shelter may increase detectability, although this would need to be verified. Regardless, all three food-based lures we tested increased the attractiveness of tracking tunnels and could be used to increase visitation to these monitoring devices. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kallista N. Wales Ryan Meinerz Roger A. Baldwin |
author_facet |
Kallista N. Wales Ryan Meinerz Roger A. Baldwin |
author_sort |
Kallista N. Wales |
title |
Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards |
title_short |
Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards |
title_full |
Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards |
title_fullStr |
Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing the Attractiveness of Three Baits for Roof Rats in California Citrus Orchards |
title_sort |
assessing the attractiveness of three baits for roof rats in california citrus orchards |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122417 https://doaj.org/article/8736cf44d649414b85209ea125bcb70b |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Agronomy, Vol 11, Iss 2417, p 2417 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/12/2417 https://doaj.org/toc/2073-4395 doi:10.3390/agronomy11122417 2073-4395 https://doaj.org/article/8736cf44d649414b85209ea125bcb70b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122417 |
container_title |
Agronomy |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
2417 |
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1766176419831873536 |