EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT FOOD BAITS BY USING TRAPS FOR THE CONTROL OF LESSER BANDICOOT RAT (Bandicota bengalensis) IN FIELD CROPS OF POTHWAR PLATEAU, PAKISTAN

The lesser bandicoot rat (Bandicota bengalensis) is a widely distributed and serious agricultural pest in Pakistan. It has wide adaptation with rice-wheat-sugarcane cropping systems of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces and wheat-groundnut cropping system of the Pothwar area, thus inflicting heavy losses to these crops. Comparative efficacies of four food baits (onion, guava, potato and peanut butter smeared bread/Chapatti) were tested in multiple feeding tests for snap/kill trapping of this rodent species in the Pothwar Plateau between October 2013 to July 2014 at the sowing, tillering, flowering and maturity stages of wheat, groundnut and millet crops. The results revealed that guava was the most preferred bait for the rat species as compared to the other three. Among relative efficacies of all four tested baits: guava scoring the highest trapping success (16.94 ± 1.42 percent), followed by peanut butter, potato and onion (10.52 ± 1.30, 7.82 ± 1.21 and 4.5 ± 1.10 percent) respectively. Crop stage/season-wise highest trapping success was achieved at maturity stages of the crop. Moreover, the maturity stage of wheat crop coincided with spring breeding season and maturity stages of millet and groundnut matched with monsoon/autumn breeding peak of the lesser bandicoot rat in the Pothwar area. Preferred order among four baits tested was guava > peanut butter > potato > onion.