This updated 2nd edition, two decades after the publication of the first edition, combines information from the latest scientific research on rodent pests and their control. It includes 19 chapters discussing: the natural history of rodents and preadaptations to pestilence; commensal rodents;...

This chapter introduces the diversity of rodents and discusses that in managing the tiny minority of species that are significant pests, it is important to understand their ecology and behaviour. Rodent pests have a huge economic impact and, therefore, increasing effort and resources are being...

This chapter focuses on the damage and losses of stored crops and other foodstuffs due to commensal rodents. The ecology and feeding preferences of Rattus norvegicus, R. rattus, Mus spp., Mastomys natalensis, Bandicota bengalensis and R. exulans.

This chapter outlines established methods for the assessment of damage and losses caused by rodents to certain crops (rice, oil palms, coconuts, maize, sugarcane and cocoa) and stored products. The importance of damage assessment data in predicting the cost and benefits of implementing rodent...

This chapter gives a more detailed consideration to some of the most important rodent problems in temperate field crops and forestry. Some effective control strategies developed to combat these rodent problems are also discussed.

This chapter discusses the problems with non-target effects of rodent control on wildlife (e.g., mammals and birds) and environnment, and how better scientific understanding of the underlying ecology might enable the assessment, and perhaps the reduction, of risk. It focuses on understanding how...

Rodenticide residues are measured in wildlife to gain information on the scale of exposure and to assess the likelihood of associated adverse effects. Such monitoring are needed because rodenticides are not target specific in their toxicity; wild vertebrates have the potential to be exposed to...

Most rodent species are highly adapted, selected, boom-or-bust strategists. Such pre-adaptation to invasiveness allows them quickly to take advantage of abundant new resources and is why rodents are among the most successful mammalian colonizers of islands. This chapter discusses the impacts of...

This chapter discusses what has happened 20 years since the publication of the first edition of this book in 1994 about rodenticides and rodent control, including issues on market availability, resistance, efficacy, environmental risk assessment and regulation of rodenticides.