Indigenous Traps for the management of Rodent outbreak in North Eastern Hill region of India

Abstract

Use of rat traps is an ecologically sound and cheaper method of rodent management. Bamboo flowering and subsequent rodent outbreaks are common in North East India; hence tribal communities of the region have invented their own local devices to control rodents. Attempts were therefore made to collect the information on different indigenous traps and bait stations and also to evaluate their effectiveness at different locations in Mizoram. Four indigenous rodent traps and some bamboo made bait stations were commonly observed in the region. Amongst, traps, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Vaithang</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Chepthang </i>were found to be highly efficient over conventional traps. Similarly, bamboo made bait stations were also observed to be more effective than other methods. Although, conventional traps were found less efficient but they can further be modified as per the design of efficient indigenous traps and could be commercialized for effective rodent management.