We all want to keep our local wildlife and pets safe, but it can be hard to know what products you should buy or avoid when at the store. To help, we’ve created this helpful guide, so you can ensure you are being owl friendly at home.
✅ Good alternatives to the SGARs listed below.
Traps, lures, and rodent-proofing measures
Poisons should always be a last resort, because rodenticides pose risks to non-target wildlife and pets
Always read the active ingredients of poisons because some brands – like Ratsak – use multiple poisons across their range of products. Read our guide below to learn the active ingredients that are safer to buy, and what ones to avoid.
Always avoid throwaway bait pellets or paste, as these are easily eaten by wildlife. Purchase baits that come in block form, and deliver them via tamper-proof bait stations. Tamper proof bait stations better protect most pet cats and dogs, and some wildlife from poisons. But, many native animals can access bait stations, so always deploy them inside buildings that wildlife cannot access – e.g. not under carports.
Non-Anticoagulant Rodenticides
Active Ingredient: Corn Gluten Meal & Sodium Chlorideeg: Ratsak Naturals
Active Ingredient: Cholecalciferoleg: Selontra
First-Generation Anticoagulant RodenticidesActive Ingredient: Warfarin, Coumatetralyl
❌ All products containing SGARs should be avoided!
Farmers, rural landholders, and anyone with a backyard chicken coop should also avoid using SGARs, because their ability to bioaccumulate for extended periods, to transfer from hens to eggs, and to suspend in water. These factors can lead to dangerous contamination.
Packaging for SGARs can be unclear, but as a safe bet avoid all products with the ingredients: brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, difenacoum or flocoumafen.
As Australia transitions away from these poisons, many people are discovering unused SGAR products at home.
⚠️ Please don’t put them in your bin.
SGARs remain active for long periods, and rats can access rubbish, in effect sending us straight back to square one.
✅ Instead: contact your local council about chemical or poison disposal options, use council clean up days and drop off services, or (in Victoria) programs like Detox Your Home, via sustainability Victoria which accept rat bait specifically. Safe disposal is a simple but powerful way to stop these poisons from entering the food chain and doing their damage.
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