Plantation Crops

Mammalian pests

Rats
• Rodents damage tender nuts by making entry hole and feed on internal contents and cause severe crop loss. Droppen nuts will have characteristic holes at the base.

Management / Control of Rats :
• For the control of rats food and shelter should be avoided. Rat control by the use of poisonous chemicals is dangerous to human being (as rat is a mammalian pest) Provide mechanical barrier: GI sheet bands of 40 cm wide, fixed around the trunk of palms at a height of 2 m from the ground.

Poison baits
•  Single dose acute poisons Eg. Zinc phsphoide
• Multiple dose antiblood coagulants: Eg. Warfarin, Fumarin compounds. Eg : Roban – Avoids blood clotting in rats and there will be continuous bleeding leading to the death of rats.
•  Fumigate the hiding places using Aluminium phosphide tablets. :Rat burrows in the fields ( in rice ecosystem etc.,) can be fumigated with aluminium phosphoide tablets).