IPM strategy for rodent control in storage facilities

The fundamental idea of IPM is to put nature's own regulatory mechanisms to maximum use in order to prevent damage, which is in the best interest of manufacturers, society at large and the environment. However, Haines (2000) assessed stored products IPM still insufficiently developed at the end of the 20th century. Support to IPM development in stored agricultural products is the use of natural compounds to control rodent pests. One of such compounds is cellulose, whose mode of action differs from the modes of other rodenticide active ingredients. As resistance to I and II generation anticoagulant rodenticides has been reported worldwide, we have introduced for the first time anywhere in the world a rodenticide based on Se (0.1% sodium selenite) with a mode of action based on the replacement of SH groups of functional enzymes with S- S groups. We also tested products based on vitamin D3 with a known mechanism of action. The new Se-based products achieved good efficacy against rat (91.10 % and 87.50 %) and mouse (97.60% and 98.40%), and cellulose-based product against mouse (91.66%), compared to products based on vitamin D3 in rat (90.00% and 90.30%) and mouse control (98.60% and 98.2%), bromadiolone in rat (93.80% and 90.7%) and mouse control (92.86% and 91.9%) and brodifacoum in mouse control (97.06%). The products based on Se, vitamine D3 and cellulose have good toxicological and ecological properties and the fact that there have been no known cases of resistance make them recommendable for use against rodents in storage facilities.