This newsletter, authored by Jerry Cates, keeps E2M2C™ program participants informed about the devices in place at their homes and businesses. It is accessible to all who are interested in the general subject of rodent control and the research this program is conducting. © Bugsinthenews Vol. 25:02(01): Re-published, with fresh content, on 18 Febrary 2025. To view the archived 2024 E2M2C™ Chronicles, click here.
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Our Latest News on Rodent Biology is posted below:
Note: The E2M2C™ program’s focus is on what we refer to as EcoSystem Forensics. Though rodent control is only one of several projects that fall under the E2M2C™ umbrella, it remains the most crucial. Of all pests affecting mankind, commensal rodents pose the greatest known threat to human health and safety. Thus, their control has a crucial impact on our well-being. Yet besides being our number one pest-related threat, the importance of effective rodent control continues to be underestimated by home and business owners, as well as by federal, state, and local governments. Further, because rodent biology is thought to be a “settled science” academia and the pest management community have neglected needed research into the behavior of commensal rodents. The E2M2C™ program is dedicated to correcting these deficits, and continues to make great strides in that direction.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
As part of the Envronmental Protection Agency’s once-every-15-years-review, that regulatory authority is moving full-steam-ahead to tighten regulations governing rodenticides and dispensing devices associated with them. Though the earliest the changes envisioned by EPA might be announced and implemented is late July 2024, it is wise to recognize and act upon the “writing on the wall” well in advance. Accordingly, since mid-October of 2023 we’ve been reviewing and revising the external and internal architectures, labeling, and choice of expendable products deployed within all our E2M2C™ devices. We are taking these steps not just to reflect the letter, but to apply the spirit of all the regulatory changes that authorities on this topic consider most likely to pass muster.
To the best of our knowledge our E2M2C™ devices have always been more than fully compliant with existing labeling requirements, and have always been the most effective, secure, and tamper-resistant rodent control devices in use anywhere in the world. Still, nothing’s perfect, and everything can be improved upon, so we are proactively implementing important additions and revisions that increase the informative nature of their exteriors, and that make them even more effective, secure, and tamper-resistant. Some of these revisions will be visible on the devices’ exteriors, while others–being strictly internal–will not be noticeable.
Stay tuned for updates on the latest decisions made by EPA regarding new regulations on the use of rodenticides throughout the United States.
NTOI ELIMINATION, RODENTICIDE CHOICE TRENDS, & NEW FORMULATIONS
We constantly monitor rodenticide consumption in our E2M2C™ devices for evidence of choice trends regarding specific rodenticide formulations. Such evidence is difficult to tabulate, for a number of complicated reasons that add time to the process. In times past little evidence of choice trends has been noted; what was true in 2008, for example, held just as true in 2023. In 2024, that changed. One formulation in particular begin to show definite reductions in consumption, compared to others in the mix. This discovery led us to modifying the mix of rodenticides by reinstatement of one formulation we’d ceased using years ago. That latter formulation was found to be rapidly compromised by non-target-organism-intruders (NTOI), such as ants, crickets, roaches, slugs and snails, reducing the effective life span of the typical E2M2C™ device placement interval.
NTOI Contamination & Control
NTOI contamination is one of the major causes of device failure and rodenticide senescence. All species of silk-weaving spiders, for example, plastered the E2M2C™ device interiors with webbing, and the webs of some–black widows in particular–were so strong that they often prevented rodents from accessing the rodenticides. Crickets, Anerican and smoky brown roaches, and a long list of ant species consume the rodenticides and contaminate them with their feces. Terrestrial mollusks–slugs and snails–consume the rodenticides and envelop them in a gooey slime that renders them unpalatable. Furthermore, NTOI appeared to like using the E2M2C™ devices for nesting purposes, so wherever the devices were placed the local NTOI often congregated there.
Absent a separate means of eliminating NTOI activity in the E2M2C™ devices, provisioning them with rodenticide formulations favored by NTOI was asking for trouble, so we ceased using those NTOI found especially tasty. We discovered the number of rodenticides NTOI were attracted to was quite large, to the point that unwise choices of rodenticides used in the E2M2C™ devices could make the devices unpalatable to rodents within days after placement. That discovery led us to search energetically for a means of eliminating NTOI from the E2M2C™ devices altogether.
After much work and a long list of failures–a la Thomas Edison’s search for a good lightbulb– we succeeded in that search in late 2024. Since then we’ve been treating all E2M2C™ devices with a special mixture of pesticides that keep all of the NTOI we’ve noted out of them. Some of our clients have commented since that this has had a positive effect on pest elimination inside their homes and stores. This finding adds weight to an earlier finding, decades ago, that effective pest management on the perimeters of homes and businesses (“effective” meaning one that eliminates true pests without negatively affecting beneficial organisms that prey on those pests) practically eliminates the need for pest management in the interiors of those venues.
Negative Trends Affecting Rodenticide Choice
Simultaneously, we became aware of indications that one of the rodenticide formulations we were using was being passed over by visiting rodents more often than in the past. This formulation had been the mainstay of our rodenticide arsenal, primarily because–in times past–it “always” showed consumption by visiting rodents. Now that wasn’t happening. This did not make the E2M2C™ devices less functional, simply because we had always provisioned them with three different rodenticide formulas, so even if one or two were passed over, the third usually got taken. Still, reduced favorability of any rodenticide reduces the E2M2C™ devices’ effective placement interval, and we want that to be as long as possible.
Beginning on 1 February 2025 we began adding a 4th rodenticide formula to each E2M2C™ device. The three formulas previously included remain, along with the 4th, though the one showing reduced choice was reduced from 2 to a single packet. The new formulation we’ve added is part of a family of rodenticides that is readily contaminated by certain NTOI, specifically fire ants. Though that family of rodenticides has a history of excellent acceptance by rodents, fire ant contamination had seriously reduced its life in the field. Now that we are addressing NTOI issues, we can resume using members of that rodenticide family in the E2M2C™ devices. We’re anxious to see how the new formula is accepted over the next few months.
Positive Trends Affecting Rodenticide Choice
While we’re talking about d0wnward changes in rodenticide acceptance, we should also mention upward changes we’ve noticed. One of the three original rodenticide formulas had, until recently, shown no more than a mediocre acceptance rate. We continued to provision the E2M2C™ devices with it because–while it never seemed to be one that rodents were “wild” about–it still loped along with an acceptable rate of consumption. During 2024 we noted a positive uptick in consumption of that formulation. I’ve queried the manufacturer to see if they’ve changed anything that might account for that change, but they claim no modifications have been made. Changes in rodent tastes may be the deciding factor. We are glad to see this uptick, as we consider this to be a “Goldilocks” rodenticide–i.e., one that is just right–because it is highly lethal to rodents, but carries a very low risk of secondary poisoning.
We’ll discuss more on this subject soon…
Jerry