Is the pitter-patter of tiny feet keeping you up at night? Maybe you don’t even hear them but come down to the kitchen to prepare your breakfast in the morning and find that unwelcome guests have been helping themselves to your cereal?
Even if you don’t mind sharing and think they’re cute, you need to get rid of them as they are dirty and carry diseases. Mice and rats can be a problem whether you live in the city or the country, and since they multiply so quickly, getting rid of them can be hard work! There are so many different ways you can try and deal with vermin, so we reviewed the MOTOMCO Tomcat Mouse and Rat Bait Place Pack to see if it worked as well as they promised.
MOTOMCO Tomcat Mouse and Rat Bait Place Pack
The product claimed to be more challenging than a barnyard cat for killing rats and mice, which is excellent, especially if you don’t have a barn and your landlord won’t let you have a cat. It’s an anticoagulant rodent poison that comes in 22 pieces of three-ounce “serving size” packages that should kill mice and rats within four to six days.
Who Is This Product For?
This product is for anyone with a medium to large Norway rats, roof rats, or house mice infestation in or around the home or any structure or building at home or work. If you don’t have children or pets, then you can use it in the house without a problem as it is, but if you have kids or pets or are going to use this product outside, then you must also buy appropriate bait traps so that the poison doesn’t end up in the wrong mouths.
It’s worth noting that this product cannot be used by anyone living in the state of California as the purchase and possession of any products containing diphacinone are restricted.
What Is Included?
The pail contains 22 pouches of the bait that have detailed instructions for use as well as safety warnings and advice on using the product safely around children or animals. Each pouch contains three ounces of the product, which is recommended as a single dose for one rat. If you have more than one rat, you should put more than one pouch down, and if you are fighting the lighter in bodyweight mice, you can open the pouch and use smaller amounts.
Overview of Features
The fact that this product comes in separate portions means it has a lot of packaging, but it is handy to be measured out already, and nice to know that you aren’t touching the poison directly either. The idea of the portion is also good if you are trying to kill rats, but for mice, it is recommended that you open the pouch anyway, so the pouch is a complete waste of packaging.
The active ingredient in the product is diphacinone, which is a first-generation anticoagulant. It is an effective poison that works by preventing the mouse or rat’s blood from clotting, which after several days will lead to their death from internal bleeding as long as the mouse or rat receives the right dose.
Some rodents have built up a resistance to this poison though, so it may not work as well for you as it does for others if you are unlucky enough to have first-generation-resistant rats or mice. With the vast majority of users reporting excellent results, it means that you have to be very careful on how and where you use it (potentially buying separate bait traps as well as these place packs) as there have been cases where this poison has resulted in accidentally killing off other wildlife.
The fact that it takes a few days for the mice or rats to die after consuming the bait means they will keep coming back and other mice or rats aren’t scared of the food source. This is quite important with larger rat infestations as both rats and mice are intelligent enough to learn to stay away from food if it kills them too quickly. The way the mice and rats die has been brought into question on a moral level as to whether we should be allowed to make them suffer so much before they die or not, so if this bothers you, then maybe this isn’t the right solution for you.
The fact that you have 22 packs in the pail is good as more often than not, you will need quite a few packs to eradicate a whole family or colony of rats, and you have spare to put down to make sure you are giving them enough.
How to Use This Product?
The directions for using these “place packs” are pretty straightforward as you literally just place the pack in locations that you think mice or rats will pass and might come across the poison. Alongside walls or places where you see signs of them like gnawed openings and droppings.
For rats, it is recommended that you place between one and five packs at intervals of around 15 to 30 feet and keep replenishing them for around ten days. For mice, you only need around one or two tablespoons of the product, so you can open the pack and place at intervals of eight to twelve feet.
Alternatives
An alternative to the MOTOMCO Tomcat Place Pack is the NEOGEN RODENTICIDE Ramik’s Mouse and Rat Nuggets Pouch. It contains the same active ingredient (in the same 0.005% amount) but does away with the place packs, giving the control over portion size and without any extra wasteful packaging.
Conclusion
We think both products are great depending on how bad your rodent problem is and on how much time you have on your hands to deal with this problem. Although the Ramik’s Mouse and Rats Nugget Pouch is perfect if you have just a few mice to deal with and is eco-friendlier, we have to go with the Tomcat Mouse and Rat Bait Place Pack, especially if you have a more significant problem with rats and mice, and also if you have time constraints to deal with. Not only do the place packs mean that portion control is easier, but also, they are a lot quicker to replenish and clean up than the alternative.
