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Rats in the NFT: Rodents, Risks and Hydroponic Safety · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello there and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything
• 0:05
  soilless cultivation. I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utrema Limited.
• 0:09
  We manufacture interesting fertilizers, novel biostimulants and organic biopesticides.
• 0:15
  And we always try and do interesting and quirky marketing ideas to spread the
• 0:21
  word about Utrema as a startup challenger brand.
• 0:25
  And we've got our card game, Hydroponic Headaches,
• 0:28
  and that's finally been posted to us
• 0:31
  today so we've been busy packing them up and sending them out to our hydroponic customers
• 0:34
  so if you are a hydroponic customer in the
• 0:37
  uk and you'd like a copy of hydroponic headaches and just place any order on
• 0:42
  the website and almost certainly you place an order in the next two months you'll
• 0:46
  get a a card game a pack of cards with your order where you can go through 32
• 0:53
  of the main challenges that are faced by hydroponic growers.
• 0:57
  And it gives loads of information on the severity and the control and various
• 1:04
  aspects of it. So really interesting.
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  Anyway, that's not the subject of today's podcast. Today's podcast is talking
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  about something I saw on Facebook while I was having my morning coffee.
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  And that was a Facebook post that showed some
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  rat droppings on some nft lettuce growing
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  in a greenhouse and the grow was saying this isn't
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  oh this is terrible i was wondering what was eating my
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  plants was it grasshoppers and then i found some
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  rat droppings but the bizarre thing was it was ai generated the image and i
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  was like why would you go to the effort of creating an ai image of rat droppings
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  on nft system but they had they weren't even trying to sell anything so i I
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  don't know what they were doing.
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  But yeah, so I've been googling and seeing if rodents are a problem in hydroponics
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  or greenhouses, or is this a myth?
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  And yes, it would appear that.
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  Hydroponics mice and rats any small
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  pest can be a problem for access for
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  anything that's not fully enclosed like a grow room so
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  the university of vermont have talked about
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  this on a on a some of their outreach so you
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  need to routinely monitor in greenhouses for this for mice and
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  rats rodent nests feces and crop damage
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  the main issue obviously they spread disease
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  and they would spread disease in a field crop as well if
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  they they left contamination on there but the main issue
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  is that the feces and the urine can
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  get into recirculating fertigation solution
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  if you're not careful and that can lead to massive contamination
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  issues so certainly something to
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  look at i mean a greenhouse could be
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  the perfect habitat for rodents because they provide warmth protection
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  from predators like a fox couldn't get in abundant food
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  depending on what you're growing and they.
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  Damage the seeds the seedlings the mature crop they ruin
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  quality as well as as well as yield i
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  mean this is mainly quality and safety is is a big
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  issue so you know things the diseases
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  they carry are numerous it's not just the plague
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  they contain salmonella leptospirosis hantavirus
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  are spread by the urine the droppings and
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  saliva contaminating the food so if they're nibbling even
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  if they're just nibbling your crops they can contaminate it so
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  what you're going to do how you're going to control them obviously like any pest an integrated
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  pest management approach is best so you want to minimize minimize
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  the use of chemicals and do everything culturally and
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  physically to control them so first thing seal all entry points mice can squeeze
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  through a quarter inch that's six millimeter gaps which is crazy small anything
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  their school can fit through they can fit through and so any cracks in polyfilms
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  polycarbonate baseboards door sills things like this they can get through,
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  And so you can install fine mesh on vents. That's another reason to,
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  you know, or even hardware cloth on vents.
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  Just provide a physical barrier so that they will climb and they will get through
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  vents if you're not careful, if they've got a taste for it.
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  Squirrels will do the same. You know, squirrels have eaten my strawberries in
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  the past in my greenhouse.
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  And you have to be there and be able to monitor them as well because you don't
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  want a squirrel in a trap.
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  If you're putting traps out, you don't want them in the trap for too long because it's inhumane.
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  Inhumane is the word and it's cruel
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  that's the word and also if people
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  around hear it then they can draw attention to your
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  grow area so yeah obviously outside
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  and around the greenhouse the grow room keep grass and
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  brush and weeds trimmed to just prevent rodent
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  habitation keep compost heaps away from your
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  greenhouse and your grow rooms store plant debris in
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  a secure lidded containers obviously compost
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  heaps you're going to struggle to keep out rats and mice i mean
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  my compost heap has has snakes in it in the in the summer which for the uk is
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  very rare but they like the warmth store all seeds especially fish feeds as
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  well you know they're going to be a big problem they're going to attract rodents
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  rodent proof containers keep the material off the floor reduce clutter and things like that.
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  Obviously, you're going to be monitoring your crops anyway for pest and disease,
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  but obviously a pest log is always useful in integrated pest management,
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  depending on how big you are.
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  Trapping. Traps are usually preferred over poison in hydroponics for a number
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  of reasons I'm going to go into.
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  You really don't want to be using poisons in a chemical setting,
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  and only chemicals labelled for safe to use are allowed, really.
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  Snap back or break back traps. Quick kill, no poison, widely used in food facilities.
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  You know they're not going to be there's not going to be some live rodent making absolute,
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  noise and scrambling around and trying to escape live tracks
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  can be used if you're vegetarian or vegan and or just think
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  that it's more ethical and you could you could use
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  them for animal welfare reasons but you do have to transport them also when
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  it comes to they might have fleas as well so you need to be careful because
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  as soon as they die as soon as their core body temperature drops the fleas will
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  detach and start nibbling you they can't complete their life cycle on you but they will try.
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  If you want tamper resistant boxes you might want to contract this
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  out to a third party so you know like in the uk we have rentakill
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  or something similar in the us i'm sure they can
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  come in and install and monitor traps now we'll
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  talk about toxic baits the main
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  ones such as sort of anti-coagulants that
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  are used are not safe because they
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  are mammals they're going
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  to be so closely related to you anything that
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  kills a rat or a mice is almost certainly going to kill you or
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  do you significantly harm it's not like an insecticide that
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  uses that is based on a completely different type of biochemistry in the insect
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  the biochemistry of a mouse is very very similar to a human hence the reason
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  we use mice for medical trials in pharmaceuticals and and things like that.
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  And in scientific trials, that's one of the common trials in animal testing is a mouse test.
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  Looking at the lethal dose where
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  50% of the mice die, an LD50 test is a common test that is conducted.
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  Whether you think that's nice or you think that's needed or not,
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  that is a reality that they do have the same or similar biology.
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  It's humans. Humans and all mammals are very, very similar.
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  The only good aspect of these anticoagulants like zinc phosphide and warfarin is that they are.
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  Almost nearly completely insoluble in
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  water so you wouldn't get if if some of it
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  heaven forbid got in the fertigation solution it wouldn't travel around
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  your crop easily but if it did get in your fertigation solution
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  you'd probably want to rinse out and at the
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  very least and wash out your system because the
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  thought of killing all your customers and their
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  customers would keep you up at night you'd think so definitely.
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  Don't use baits and poisons always use
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  live traps or physically killing traps to
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  control rodents if you have had any
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  issues with rodents then in
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  hydroponics let me know i'd love to know your thoughts any hot takes
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  you've got on that that would be interested obviously if you
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  delivered fresh produce to a customer that
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  contained mouse droppings then you would
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  be no longer a supplier and your
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  reputation would be through the floor so
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  it's definitely one to consider and monitor and put
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  all those things like you know blocking up holes
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  and covering your vents and things like this is always standard
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  good practice hope you've found this of
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  interest and practically applicable in
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  your grow room if you have please give us a like on
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  they say if you're not an apple podcast just make sure you click follow and
• 9:06
  if you're interested in those hydroponics headaches
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• 9:20
  great game to play with all the family or anyone who likes growing plants anyway
• 9:24
  that's been hydroponics daily for today thank you very much for listening do
• 9:27
  appreciate it and i'll see you again tomorrow.