Q. I work at a facility that has not had any evidence of interior or exterior rodent activity for seven years. We recently installed a set of 60-foot-long racks along an interior wall in the warehouse to store packaging materials. The racks were installed against the wall so there is no way to maintain the 18-inch perimeter or to place the rodent control devices the way AIB requires. We are maintaining this area through inspection and routine cleaning with our Master Cleaning Schedule. Do we need to maintain 20-40 feet between rodent control devices to avoid getting a loss of points from an inspection?
A. The specific AIB Standard in question is 4.12 Interior Rodent Monitoring Devices. One of the Critical Requirements of this Standard is specific to device placement. Standard 4.12.1.3 states that "Interior monitoring devices are placed along perimeter walls. Spacing and number of traps are based on activity."
In this same Standard there is a Minor Requirement that suggests that monitoring devices are placed at intervals of 20-40 feet along exterior walls. (Standard 4.12.2.1)
There are several key points to your question.
- You have seen no rodent activity at your facility for seven years.
- You are maintaining inspections of the area in question through self-inspection and routine cleaning.
- You are storing a relatively low risk product in this location.
Since you are maintaining a rodent monitoring program, I would have little concern if you were to place rodent monitoring devices at each end of the rack section and continue to monitor the devices and the area.
When you are determining the number of traps to use in an area and how to space them, the history of activity is a vital consideration, as well as the conditions in the immediate area and attractiveness of the product stored there. Since you already have evaluated this information and there are no obvious issues, your program should be adequate.
However, you should also understand that the circumstances could change if activity occurs in the future. Use the data you collect during your inspection and cleaning programs to determine if a change is needed. AIB
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