Status of rat infestation and recent control strategies in oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia

Citation

M. N., Hafidzi and M. K., Saayon (2001) Status of rat infestation and recent control strategies in oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia. Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, 24 (2). pp. 109-114. ISSN 1511-3701

Abstract

A survey was carried out to establish the status of rat infestation and recent rat control practices in oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia. Rattus tiomanicus (Miller) constitutes a major rat species (68 %), followed by Rattus argentiventer (Robinson and Kloss), (46%) and Rattus rattus diardii (L.), (28%). Although 75% of estates did not consider rats as a serious problem, the damage estimated ranges from 0.01 to 0.1 t/ha. The barn owl Tyto alba (Scopoli) is now an important rat control component in oil palm i.e. 82% of estates that participated in the survey. In some estates (21.4%) control is achieved entirely with T. alba, without baiting. In most estates (60.7%) baiting was done in combination with T. alba, whereby the latter reduced baiting cost from RM2.64 to RM30/ha/year.

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Additional Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Agriculture
Publisher:	Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
Keywords:	Rattus sp; Tyto alba; Rat control; Oil palm
Depositing User:	Farhana Yusof
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2009 07:35
Last Modified:	10 Sep 2015 06:09
URI:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/3370
Statistic Details:	View Download Statistic

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