Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

All current vertebrate pest control and detection devices require a lure to be effective. Even advanced multi-kill and multi-species technologies that can work remotely for extended periods without maintenance require lures to be effective. We have developed, over the past five years, several sustained release, long-life lures for controlling and monitoring rats. The lures contain blends of chemical compounds that we identified as attractive to rats. Our early prototype lures were effective at kill-trapping wild, free-ranging ship rats without the need for replenishment for six months. We have since engineered other lures to suit different applications (e.g., kill-trapping and monitoring) and users (e.g., pest control and conservation) and are also testing our lures as bait consumption motivators. We are currently transforming our prototypes into products for international markets.