Population Frequencies and Proportional Efficacies of Acute and Anticoagulant Rodenticides Formulated Baits and Fumigant Against Rodent Pests of Wheat Crop
Population Frequencies and Proportional Efficacies of Acute and Anticoagulant Rodenticides Formulated Baits and Fumigant Against Rodent Pests of Wheat Crop
Muhammad Sarwar1*, Areej Javaria2, Muhammad Zain-ul-Abideen3, Muhammad Farhan Sarwar4 and Muhammad Haroon Sarwar5
ABSTRACT
The use of rodenticides is one of the most common approaches to control rodents in agricultural, urban and rural environments, while successfulness of a poison depends upon choice of suitable chemical, its formulation, and method and timing of applications. An investigation was carried out to detect the population frequency of rodent (Rodentia: Muridae) pests in wheat at various growth stages of crop and control operation against them. For evaluating the effectiveness of chemicals in pests control operation, two acute rodenticides (aldicarb, zinc phosphide), an anticoagulant rodenticide (racumin), and a fumigant (phostoxin), were applied at three growth stages (dough, maturation and pre-harvesting) of crop. A spot-baiting technique was adopted to apply poison baits to the rodent’s burrows according to randomize complete block design of field. In all replications, the efficacy of rodenticides was assessed by recording the damaged wheat tillers and comparing the numbers of active burrows in the treated and uncontrolled fields fortnightly throughout the trial. During the crop growing season, amongst the trapped and identified pests, lesser bandicoot rat Bandicota bengalensis Gray was the primary species in wheat fields followed by Indian gerbil Tatera indica Hardwicke, house mouse Mus musculus L., soft-furred field rat Millardia meltada Gray and short tailed mole rat Nesokia indica Gray and Hardwicke. These different pests began to raid and damage the wheat crop right from sowing, depredation increased during booting stage and peaked up to the time of harvesting. Such damage was likely influenced by a number of factors, such as relative abundance of different growth stages of crop and their relative nutritional contents, palatability, tastes, and availability of other foods in the locality. The products tested demonstrated satisfactory efficacy in controlling of rodents in protected wheat plants compared to unprotected fields. During dough stage, the maximum percent of cut stems of wheat were 6.95% in the control field which was significantly (P< 0.05) greater from fields receiving rodenticide treatments (1.06% for aldicarb, 0.82% for zinc phosphide, 0.67% for phostoxin and 0.40% for racumin). Whereas, perusal of results on overall average numbers of active burrows revealed the maximum numeral were in control fields (6.80) and it displayed statistically significant results from aldicarb (1.33), zinc phosphide (1.03), phostoxin (0.90) and racumin (0.63) products. Biological efficacy indicates that the use of poison baits containing rodenticides, and fumigant could provide an economical and effective method of controlling the rodents in wheat fields.
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