What to do if there are mice in the kitchen

As the saying goes, "A rat crossing the street will be chased by everyone." Rats are the most common pests in our lives. Not only are they extremely destructive to the environment, they also carry many pathogens and can cause the spread of bacterial diseases. Therefore, if you find mice in your home, you should deal with them in time to prevent them from breeding and causing a rat infestation. So what should you do when there are traces of mice in the kitchen?

1. There are many methods of rat control, which can generally be divided into physical rat control, chemical rat control, biological rat control and ecological rat control.

1. Environmental deratization: Rats need water, food and hidden living conditions to survive and reproduce. Therefore, creating an environment that is not suitable for their survival can greatly reduce the number of rats in a place and make it easier to consolidate the results of rat extermination. Therefore, we must first maintain good environmental hygiene, clear the weeds and randomly piled items around the house, clean the indoor and outdoor areas regularly, put away various utensils and sundries, and check suitcases, wardrobes, books, shoes and hats regularly to prevent rats from making nests.

Cut off rats' food: Rat food includes not only human food, but also feed, garbage, food industry scraps, feces, etc. These things should be stored in covered containers without gaps, so that rats cannot get food and passively eat the poison bait, so as to achieve the purpose of eliminating rats.

2. Physical deratization: also known as mechanical deratization, it has been used for a long time and has many application methods. It not only includes various special mousetraps, such as mousetraps and mouse cages, but also includes pressing, carding, closing, clamping, turning over, pouring, digging, sticking and shooting. Physical rat control also requires certain scientific and technological means. For example, the mouse cage (trap) should be placed at the entrance of the mouse hole, at a certain distance from the mouse hole. Sometimes using some camouflage can increase the capture rate. The bait on the mouse cage should be fresh and should be food that mice like to eat. Generally, it is difficult for mice to enter the cage on the first night because of the "new object reaction". The rate of entering the cage will increase after two or three days.

3. Chemical deratization: also known as drug deratization, it is the most widely used and most effective deratization method. Drug de-ratification can be divided into de-ratification with intestinal poisons and de-ratification with fumigation. The intestinal rodenticides used for rodent control are mainly organic compounds, followed by inorganic compounds, wild plants and their extracts. Gastrointestinal rodenticides are required to be palatable to mice, not cause food refusal, and have appropriate toxicity. Various poison baits are made mainly from it, which have good effects, are easy to use and can be used in large quantities. The next are poisonous water, poisonous powder, poisonous glue, poisonous foam, etc. Fumigation to kill rats, such as aluminum phosphide and chloropicrin, can be used to fumigate warehouses and ships to kill rats.

4. Biological rat control method: It includes two aspects: one is to use natural enemies to kill rats. Rats have many natural enemies, mainly small carnivorous animals such as weasels, wild cats, domestic cats, foxes, etc., birds of prey such as eagles, owls, etc., and snakes. Therefore, protecting these natural enemies of rodents is beneficial to reducing rodent damage.

5. Ecological deratization: that is, by improving the environment, including rat-proof buildings, cutting off rat food, transforming farmland, maintaining good indoor and outdoor hygiene, and removing rodent hiding places, etc., that is, controlling, transforming, and destroying the living environment and conditions that are conducive to the survival of rodents, so that rodents cannot survive and reproduce in those places. Ecological rodent control is a very important part of comprehensive rodent pest control.

2. Rodenticides

1. Depending on how quickly rodenticides take effect after entering the mouse's body, they are divided into acute and chronic types.

Acute rodenticide, also known as acute single-dose rodenticide, can kill rats if they eat a lethal amount of poison bait at one time. The advantages of this type of drug are fast action and low food consumption, but they are unsafe for humans and animals and can easily cause secondary poisoning. At the same time, during the deratization process, the rats' reactions before death are more intense, which can easily alert other rats, so the deratization effect is not as good as chronic rat poison. This type of drugs includes zinc phosphide, fluoroacetamide, thiamethoxam, thiamethoxam bromide, bromoform, and dibromothion. Fluoroacetamide, strychnine and chlorpyrifos are highly toxic and have no specific antidotes. They can easily cause poisoning in humans and animals and have been banned by the state.

Chronic rodenticides, also known as slow-acting rodenticides, can be divided into first-generation and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. The first generation of anticoagulant rodenticides such as sodium diphacin, warfarin, chlorfenapyr, chlorfenapyr, etc., require continuous application for several days to achieve the ideal rodent control effect. The acute toxicity of the second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides is relatively strong. Rats can be killed after eating them twice or three times. Rats that are resistant to the first-generation rodenticides can also be killed. This type of drugs includes brodifacoum, daclofenac, sulfadiazine, and thiadiolone.

2. Why are chronic rodenticides better than acute rodenticides?

The advantages of chronic rodenticide are: small dosage, rats will not refuse to eat, and the drug will not stop until they die, so the rodenticide effect is good, the chance of livestock poisoning is small, and if poisoned, special antidotes (vitamin K1) can be used to rescue. Chronic rodenticides are in line with the eating habits of mice. Mice eat intermittently, eating on and off. Most types of chronic rodenticides are not very toxic to mice after eating them once, and mice will not feel uncomfortable after eating them. They can eat them for several days in a row. The toxicity will accumulate and become strong, and the mice will die. Chronic rodenticides have a slow effect. Most rats die after taking the medicine for more than three days. There are no severe symptoms before death, so they continue to eat poison bait before dying. Therefore, when rats die in large numbers, almost all of them have eaten the lethal dose of rat poison. Even if some rats stop eating or move away, they cannot avoid death. There was no problem of large numbers of dead rats scaring away the survivors. Chronic rodent control has a killing effect on many types of rodents. It is relatively safe to use on a large scale, has good rodent control effects, and kills a large number of rats. It is currently the main weapon for rodent control.

Chronic rodenticides mainly refer to anticoagulant rodenticides, such as brodifacoum, daclofenac, etc.

3. Precautions for purchasing and placing rodenticides

(1) Purchase rodenticides from a department that is licensed to sell rodenticides.

(2) Understand the ingredients of the rodenticide used and the safe detoxification methods.

(3) Keep rat poison out of the reach of children.

(4) If accidentally ingested, go to hospital immediately.