In the UK, as in other countries, rats are unstoppable . Many of them are super rats, literally, and they can take it all.
Reducing their number is becoming a challenge, given that they are even capable of consuming the anticoagulants that are used as rat killers and continue to multiply.
This is suggested by a report published by the Vertebrate Pest Unit (VPU) of the University of Reading that indicates that resistance is spreading due to the use of anticoagulants containing active bromadiolone anddifenacoum .
Bromadiolone was first introduced to the UK market in 1980, proving effective against rodent populations that had become resistant to the first generation of anticoagulants.
Increasingly resistant rodents
By using products that are not effective on resistant rodents, farmers are only killing rodents that have no resistance. This is causing the resistant rodents to reproduce among themselves, which is causing the number of this lineage to increase rapidly .
The chemical company BASF supports a survey to raise awareness of resistance and collect new data on the use of rodenticides (pesticides to kill rodents) on farms across the UK. The survey is available to complete online until September 30, 2020 and aims to establish how often farmers use rodenticides, what products are being used and which regions of the UK are reporting the most resistance issues.
This has been received as good news by the Campaign for the Responsible Use of Rodenticides (CRRU), which promotes best practices in the use of all rodenticide products.