Dust rodenticide. Decent for rodents. Dangerous to the rest of us.

What she’d had done

Rodent treatment in Ashwood. She’d already had another company out. They were in and out in about fifteen minutes, used a dust rodenticide, and told her to wait 48 days for the issue to resolve.

Forty-eight days. That was the advice.

Why dust is a problem

Dust rodenticide is pretty nasty stuff. It settles in the roof space and sits there, and it’s fine until someone goes up. An electrician, a plumber…anyone. You disturb the dust, it goes airborne, and now you’re breathing it. Extremely toxic to people, pets, wildlife, etc. Not good.

I won’t use it at all, and neither will any of the team. There’s no reason to when there are safer products that work better.

What we did

Went through the roof properly. Found the main entry point the rodents were using, a gap under some of her tiles. That’s where they were getting in.

Sealed it up with aluminium flashing. Then set up a combination of soft bait and secure bait stations through the roof space. The bait deals with what’s already in there. The blocking stops new ones coming in. You need both.

The bit most people get wrong

Baiting on its own is a band-aid. You can throw bait in a roof and it’ll knock down the numbers for a while, but if the entry point is still open they just come back. And dust, honestly, is the worst version of that. Dangerous to handle, dangerous to anyone who goes into the roof after you, and it doesn’t fix the actual problem.

Find the gap. Block the gap. Then bait what’s inside. That’s a long-term fix. Fifteen minutes in and out might be great for someone else’s margins, but it’s not a fix, and it’s not safe.