Known as the most destructive vertebrates on earth, mice and rats pose a serious threat as disease transmission vectors and they cause structural and electrical damage, feed loss and contamination.

“While fall is peak season for rodent infestation as mice and rats seek shelter and food for the winter, managing rodent problems is a year-round effort, especially when it comes to biosecurity,” says Al Dam, poultry specialist with the Ontario agriculture ministry. He jokes that he’s never seen a rat properly use a foot bath.

Dam reminds Ontario livestock and poultry producers to be diligent about cleaning up spilled feed inside and outside barns, keeping barns and yards free of debris to remove unintentional shelter for rodents and to continuously monitor for signs of pests.

“Mice can easily enter through a hole as small as a dime, and rats a hole the size of a quarter,” notes Dam. Common signs of rodent infestations include feces, urine deposits, chewing damage, rub marks and pathways.

Manage disease risk

Rodents can bring disease into barns and spread infection throughout livestock herds and flocks. Rats are also known for feeding on carcasses, including wild birds, which poses a serious threat to poultry flocks on alert for avian influenza.

Rats and mice can introduce diseases including avian flu, salmonellosis, erysipelas, swine dysentery and even rabies into poultry and livestock.

“Rodent control is an important element in a robust approach to biosecurity,” says Connie Osborne, OMAFRA media relations specialist. “Managing control can be challenging, and producers who encounter ongoing problems may benefit from consulting professional pest control companies.”

Osborne also notes that flies and birds such as starlings can carry disease and should be included in a pest control and biosecurity program.

Shawn McDonald, area manager and service technician with Rural Routes Pest Control, says including a professional service provider in the farm’s biosecurity plan offers the most effective pest control.

“We’re in the business of partnering with producers to keep their barns safe and disease free,” says McDonald. His employees are professionally licensed as structural exterminators who follow biosecurity protocols that can also be adapted to meet client needs.

These include staff restrictions on raising or housing poultry or hogs, imposing 48- to 72-hour restrictions between farm visits, and disinfecting equipment and trucks, among other measures.

“Agricultural pest control is different from residential or commercial, so be sure to partner with a service provider who understands your farm needs and protocols to ensure the safest environment for your barns and peace of mind for yourself,” says McDonald.

Take control

The most common pest management strategy is to address existing populations using rodenticides and trapping, and then work with producers to develop an ongoing management plan, he says.

Regular facility inspections are also important to assess and eliminate entry points in buildings and reduce access to food, water and areas rodents can live.

“Rodents can also cause serious threat to barn fires as they chew through wiring and insulation,” says McDonald, citing another common reason that producers engage his company’s expertise.

“And from an economical perspective, 100 rats can eat a tonne of feed in one year, and can contaminate 10 times the amount of feed it eats with feces, urine and fur. Rodent problems can really add up.”

When it comes to managing pest control with rodenticides or chemical products, Osborne reminds producers to make sure all products used where animals are raised for food are licensed and approved by Health Canada.

Keeping all products out of reach by livestock or poultry is also essential and Osborne advises producers to work with their veterinarian and processor if an animal is exposed to such products.

For more information on rodent control, read OMAFRA’s factsheet, Rodent control in livestock and poultry facilities, available online at ontario.ca/page/rodent-control-livestock-and-poultry-facilities.

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A Newfoundland start-up is working to bring ecoBloc to market, a smart, invisible fence that gives off high frequency ultrasonic sound waves designed to keep mice and rats away from grain and feed storages and equipment sheds. 

Why it matters: Rodents are an ongoing problem on farms, contaminating livestock feed, damaging buildings and equipment, and spreading disease. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than US$2 billion in feed alone is destroyed by mice and rats each year. 

“We’re an exclusion technology that’s focused on stopping the problem before it becomes a problem, and not just treating it once it’s there,” says ecoBloc CEO Jason Trask. “What we do is we create an uncomfortable environment for the rodents and encourage them to go elsewhere. All they are doing is looking for food and shelter and we change their behaviour.”

EcoBloc isn’t just suitable for the farm, it can be used in any location that attracts rodents, from food processing facilities and restaurants to warehousing, retail and transportation. It is designed for indoor and outdoor use, doesn’t rely on poisons or chemicals, reduces labour needs, and can be managed remotely using a mobile app. 

Although there are other ultrasonic solutions on the market, Trask emphasizes ecoBloc is the only one that uses a proprietary algorithm to keep the sound unpredictable, ensuring rodents don’t become accustomed to it. 

“The base science is similar to other ultrasonic tech, but it’s like saying Corolla and Lamborghini are both cars. That’s a true statement but you wouldn’t compare the two,” he notes. “All of our clients so far haven’t had any mice or rats come back.”

Trask is a life-long entrepreneur, but he didn’t set out with a mission to change on-farm rodent control. In fact, it was through his role as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship at Newfoundland’s Memorial University that he met the system’s inventor who came looking for advice. Although he declined several times initially, Trask ultimately bought the technology from him and is now working to commercialize it. 

EcoBloc introduced its first product in fall of 2020, working primarily with partners in the food industry on paid pilots to solve chronic rodent issues. To date, the technology has been sold in five countries and the company is now working on achieving the certification it needs to sell into most global markets. 

“Our current partners include pest control companies, farmer co-operatives and hardware stores especially in rural areas near farms and food processing,” Trask says. “We hope to be certified and globally available by late summer.”

Trask is actively seeking interested distribution partners and is also working with research institutions to independently verify the successful results ecobloc has seen in its field trials. 

EcoBloc was recently selected as a member of the first cohort at the THRIVE Canada Accelerator, led by Silicon Valley-based SVG Ventures, a global investment platform that has been helping start-up founders and entrepreneurs around the world for more than a decade.

Trask applied for one of the coveted cohort spots in hopes of getting help with his go-to-market strategies, gaining a better understanding on how to position ecobloc for the agricultural market, and making connections to the Canadian and U.S. agri-food innovation networks. The accelerator’s mentorship and support will also help Trask as he works to raise US$1.3 million in his first financing round. 

“One of the biggest values we provide is we save time and give peace of mind. We’re an automated solution that fits into precision farming,” he says. “Food is essential and while we are motivated by profit, we also see the impact it would have if we can improve food security and safety and be more efficient with what we have.”

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