Rodenticide

rodenticide, any substance that is used to kill rats, mice, and other rodent pests. Warfarin, 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate), ANTU (legal label for alpha-naphthylthiourea), and red squill are commonly used rodenticides. These substances kill by preventing normal blood clotting and causing internal hemorrhaging. Fumigants such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and methyl bromide are also effective rodenticides. Phosphorus paste, barium carbonate salt, and powders such as zinc phosphide, white arsenic, thallium sulfate, strychnine, strychnine sulfate, and calcium cyanide are mixed with bait and placed where rodents will find and eat them. All these poisons are toxic to other animals, and most cause death by disturbance of nervous-system functions. Red squill, a rodenticide derived from the bulbs of a lilylike subtropical plant, is slower-acting and less toxic to animals other than rodents because it is removed from the stomach by vomiting—a reflex that is absent in rodents.