Choosing a Bait Station Product for Household Use
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More than a dozen ready-to-use bait station products are registered for use to control house mice. Some of those products also are registered to control rats.
A ready-to-use bait station is one that is sold with a rodenticide bait packaged in or with it:
- Some ready-to-use bait stations cannot readily be opened and, therefore, are non-refillable. Those products are to be discarded, as directed by labeling, after their bait contents have been consumed or contaminated.
- Other ready-to-use bait stations are designed to be opened by users and refilled after the baits originally placed in them have been consumed or contaminated. These refillable bait stations are sold with additional bait to be used as refills.
When used as directed, ready-to-use bait stations reduce access to bait by young children, pets, and nontarget wildlife while allowing the targeted rodents to enter and feed from them. These products come in several forms:
- Ready-to-use bait stations (Tier 1) that have been shown to be resistant to tampering efforts by young children and by dogs and are considered to be weather-resistant may be used indoors and outdoors, within 50 feet of buildings.
- Tier 2 ready-to-use bait stations have been shown to be resistant to tampering by young children and by dogs but cannot be used outdoors because they are not considered to be weather-resistant bait stations.
- Tier 3 ready-to-use bait stations have been shown to be resistant to tampering by young children and can be used indoors in area to which pets have no access.
- Tier 4 ready-to-use bait stations either have not been shown to be tamper-resistant or have not been tested in that regard. Therefore, Tier 4 stations may only be used indoors in areas to which young children and pets have no access, including residences where no young children or pets live or visit.
Always read and follow the directions on the label to reduce accidental exposure to the poison. You can find the labels for these products in our Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS). This resource can help you if the packaging for the product you have has been damaged and you can't read all the directions or if you hear about a product, and you want to find out more about it. You can search by product name, EPA registration number, or company name.