the barn. In addition to eating (and contaminating) large quantities of feed, they can destroy equipment and property, and expose people and animals to disease. Start with sanitation controls. It’s worth saying again that keeping the barn clean and orderly goes a long way in discouraging rodents from taking up residence. Well-fitting doors and windows can also help keep rodents out. To make your place less attractive to raccoons and opossums, Blickle suggests putting away dog and cat food at night and not adding bones, fat, or other food scraps to the compost pile. Keep garbage cans in a secure area until the morning of trash pickup. If you have chickens, put them in a safe coop at night with a secure door and roof, she advises. Biological Rodent Controls • Owls, hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey. These beneficial birds can help control a variety of rodents. Attract them by installing nesting boxes made for each species. Check with your local extension office or Department of Fish and Wildlife for designs and location tips. • Barn cats. Never underestimate the contribution of a talented mouser in keeping rodent populations in check, especially mice. Each trainer at the Parker-based Colorado Horse Park is assigned a feed stall, says Marion Maybank, the venue’s competition manager and COO. “The trainers are required to keep all feed, treats, and supplements in metal containers with lids. This way, our barn cats can roam through and monitor the feed stalls for mice, and they do a great job.” Keep your barn cats healthy and protected by neutering or spaying, vaccinating, and providing food and water in a place that’s safe from mice.
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Physical Rodent Controls • Snap traps. Old-school and still effective, these traditional mousetraps work best when placed along walls and rodent pathways. Bait the trap for a few days without setting it so rodents lose their fear of the device. • Electronic battery-powered traps. Offered in different sizes for different species, these humanely electrocute the rodent when it walks inside. Bait the trap for a few days without turning it on, and allow the rodents to enter the trap and eat the food. • Ultrasonic devices. These emit sound frequencies that manufacturers claim repel rodents but are unnoticed by humans, horses, cats, and dogs. Chemical Rodent Controls Common ingredients in repellent products include peppermint oil, ammonia, capsaicin (the ingredient that makes hot peppers hot), and predator urine. Ask your extension office
ON THE JOB: A watchful barn cat is alert for rodent prey. Many farms consider a cat a key component of their pest-control strategy. Some cat-rescue groups work to place less-social or otherwise hard-to-adopt felines as barn cats for free or low cost.
or local pest-control company for recommendations, and remember that “natural” doesn’t always mean safe or effective.
A Balanced Approach to Pest Control To limit the spread of disease and to keep horses and humans comfortable, it’s important to keep pests in check. The trick is to get rid of the bad guys without harming the beneficial insects and wildlife that naturally reduce pests and help to keep our ecosystem in balance. By incorporating some of the eco-friendly strategies in this article, unwanted visitors will find your barn (and your horse) less attractive, while nature’s own pest-control patrol will want to move in. It all adds up to fewer pests and a more healthful environment. s Kara L. Stewart is an award-winning author who has experienced the differences in reducing unwanted pests in the opposing climates of Colorado’s Front Range foothills and now along California’s Central Coast. Her retired Arabian gelding, Eddie, loves his fly mask but isn’t crazy about the sticky fly traps hung in his stall. Digital Edition Bonus Content
Read the article “Use of Pupal Parasitoids as Biological Control Agents of Filth Flies on Equine Facilities,” which explains how to use parasitoids (beneficial parasitic wasps) as part of an effective integrated pest-management system. USDF Connection
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