by MattRat Control And Farming
Briarquest Pest Control has a number of farm contracts both in Doncaster and throughout the Yorkshire area. Traditionally farmers would gain their own qualifications to treat rodents with rodenticide. However many farmers woke up to the realisation that because they have countless other responsibilities their rat control tended to be sporadic. As a result what they were finding is that the population of rats would peak before they made time to treat the infestation. Then, in a panic they would tend to use powerful single feed baits in the wrong areas, this would be picked up by organisations during audits such as Red Tractor Farm Assurance. As a result they would be left in danger of failing their audit!
Rats Are Eating Into Your Profits
An adult rat eats up to 10% of it’s own bodyweight in a day! Now if you are a farmer and you have a rat problem and you estimate how many rats are on your farm. That is an awful lot of grain, cattle feed, pig feed, milk replacer etc in one day. Rats are literally eating your machinery. They climb up into the warm engine bays of recently used tractors and combine harvesters and they bask is the warm glow. Of course whilst they are keeping warm they are also chewing through your wiring and hydraulic pipes. Next lets look at the damage to your buildings, rats will easily gnaw their way through wooden doors, into barns, food storage areas and live behind Yorkshire boarding. They will also use your drainage network as a rat highway and they will chew and claw their way through concrete, undermining cattle shed and pig units.
Rats Spread Diseases
Rats spread a number of diseases and pathogens on farms. Lets name a few, such as salmonellosis, rat bite fever, Listeria, toxoplasmosis and Toxacaria. Rats also negaitvely affect the biosecurity of your farm. An adult rat can travel up to 4 miles in search of a new home and is attracted by the pheremones secreted by other rats. If we take the previous outbreak of foot and mouth as an example, then you think about hown many farms are in a four mile radius of your farm. It is not difficult to see how rats can spread diseasesover a vast area very quickly. Leptosporosis or Weils disease is spread in the urine of rats and other rodents. This can be passed to you, your farm animals and your pets.
We Reduce Your Environmental Impact
At Briarquest Pest Control we work to together with our clients to ensure that we comply with assurance schemes and that we try our hardest to minimise the envirnmental impact of your rodent control program. An example of this would be the periodic use of thermal imaging on site in order to correctly guage the rat population of your farm and target trapping, shooting and rodenticide use on yor farm to maximise the impact of the tratment plan. Once we really know what we are dealing with and have video evidence we can specifically target our work to suit your farm. In the case of the images below at a pig unit near Doncaster we decided that as many rats as possible would be shot using air rifles prior to a rodenticide treatment plan being implemented. This was to preserve a high population of birds of prey on the farm, by limiting any carcasses containing rodenticide by shooting 75% of th rat population, we had a positve effect on the farm and we also had a positve impact on the surrounding wildlife. In this current climate, what is not to like about that approach? This is the kind of relationship Briarquest Pest Control likes to foster with the farming community.
Rat Control in Farming & Agriculture
Do You Want Briarquest To Take Control Of Your Rat Nightmare?
Although Briarquest Pest Control are based in Doncaster, we travel throughout Yorkshire to help farmers like you get control of rat infestations on farms. If you would like to discuss your specific needs and have us design a rat control program to suit your farm then please call or message Briarquest Pest Control now. Tel 01302 272181