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Rodenticides
Non-chemical Rodent Control
Resources
- Questions on pesticides? National Pesticide Information Center
1-800-858-7378
- American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC)
1-800-222-1222 - AAPCC's data on poisoning/exposure incidents for pesticides
Current as of December 24, 2008
Rodenticides are pesticides used in urban, suburban, and rural areas to control rodents. It is important to keep mice and rats out of households and surrounding areas to prevent transmission of disease and property damage. Rodenticides are also used to control moles, chipmunks, ground squirrels, jackrabbits, gophers, muskrat, and mongoose in areas such as orchards and rangelands and in conservation programs.
EPA has developed a risk management decision for ten rodenticides. The ten rodenticides covered by this decision are those that the Agency concluded pose the greatest risk to human health and the environment.
- Brodifacoum
- Bromadiolone
- Bromethalin
- Chlorophacinone
- Cholecalciferol
- Difenacoum
- Difethialone
- Diphacinone
- Warfarin
- Zinc phosphide
Rodenticides are an important tool for public health pest control, including controlling mice and rats around the home, but marketing and use practices have been associated with accidental exposures to thousands of children each year. These products also pose significant risks to non-target wildlife, including both birds and mammals. With EPA’s required risk mitigation measures in place, rodenticide products will be safe, effective, and affordable for all consumers.
EPA evaluated the rodenticides concurrently to ensure that human health and ecological risk assessment and risk management approaches were consistent. This review is part of the Agency’s program to ensure that all pesticides meet current health and safety standards.
In addition to rodenticide baits, products that do not contain pesticides, such as spring traps, are also available to consumers to control mice and rats. Integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, combining different ways of controlling pests, are essential to effective management of rodents in residential areas. See household IPM information from EPA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For Additional Information:
Notice of Receipt of Registrants' Requests to Voluntarily Cancel 22 Rodenticide Registrations [December 24, 2008, FR Notice]; comments accepted through June 22, 2009. The registrants' requests would not cancel all rodenticide products containing the active ingredients included. Many rodenticide registrants requesting product cancellations, and other registrants not requesting cancellations, have informed EPA that they intend to submit amended labels for rodenticide products incorporating all of the risk mitigation measures required by the Agency's Risk Mitigation Decision for Ten Rodenticides (see below).
Risk Mitigation Decision for Ten Rodenticides (May 28, 2008)
- Risk Mitigation Decision Document (PDF) - May 28, 2008 (60 pp, 2.8 MB, about PDF) available from the docket in Regulations.gov
- Fact Sheet on EPA's Risk Mitigation Decision for Ten Rodenticides
- Rodenticides Final Risk Mitigation Decision; Notice of Availability [June 4, 2008]