New hotspots of rats that are resistant to anticoagulant rodenticides have been identified by monitoring carried out at The University of Reading. The study was commissioned by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU) under its stewardship remit for the HSE-led Government Oversight Group (GOG). In...
Tougher restrictions on permanent rodenticide baiting by farmers, gamekeepers and pest controllers, with legal backing, have been introduced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the UK rodenticide regulatory body. A detailed booklet, CRRU Guidance: Permanent Baiting, is available from HERE. The practice is only approved...
A new set of information materials supporting effective and responsible rodenticide use has been published by UK Rodenticide Stewardship and is available free of charge to all users. Topics are: Exposure of wildlife to rodenticides; Direct bait application in burrows; Environmental risk assessments; and Changes to...
Guidelines for online sales of anticoagulant rodenticide products have been updated for recently introduced smaller packs and lower active ingredient levels in products for general public use. All such rodenticides must now be lower than 30ppm of active ingredient. For wax block formulations, maximum packs sizes are...
In roughly equal measure, concerns and reassurance about rat control on farms have been identified by a recent survey. Working with the NFU, UK Rodenticide Stewardship obtained information from 117 farm owners and managers. The primary concern, according to stewardship spokesman and Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide...
Farmers, gamekeepers and pest controllers are being encouraged to undertake knowledge updates to maintain their professional competence in the use of stewardship-label rodenticides. In its response to UK Rodenticide Stewardship's 2017 annual report, the Government panel that oversees the regime says continuing professional development (CPD) is...
Less than two years since the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime's mid-2016 introduction, 13,000 users of professional-use-only rat baits have undergone training and been awarded approved certification. This takes the proportion of stewardship-certified gamekeepers, for example, from 37% in 2015 to 60% in 2017. For professional pest...
Just when farmers are getting the hang of rodenticide stewardship rules, introduced mid-2016, a new study by Reading University confirms that rats in some parts of the country are resistant to some of the most widely-used poison baits. The report states that the study "shows the...
Eleven assurance schemes with combined memberships of 95,000 farm businesses will be compliant with the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime for 2018. They are: AIC's Trade Assurance Scheme for Combinable Crops British Egg Industry Council's Lion code Duck Assurance Scheme Farm Assured Welsh Livestock Laid in Britain ...
No significant changes have been detected in barn owl liver residues of rodenticide between 2016 and a seven-year baseline. This comes from independent analysis by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) of barn owl livers supplied from the Predatory Birds Monitoring Scheme, a citizen science project. As a...