An alarming new study out of Rutgers University suggests humans are falling behind in the great war to combat rats and indoor mice. The team of researchers found that many of the rodents we come into contact with on a daily basis have begun evolving to resist our most traditional forms of exterm ination. Nearly 300 rats and mice were collected from pest control companies in New York City and other urban pockets across the Northeast, and tested for genetic mutations linked to rodenticide resistance. More than 80% of the mice samples confirmed at least one mutation to rodenticide, the most commonly used poison in the U.S. A fewer number of the rats tested (about 30%) had the same mutation, the research team said. “We found that resistance appears to be much more widespread in house mice than many people realized,” said Jin-Jia Yu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Entomology at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the first author of the study. The study, Yu’s team said, came out of years of talks between researchers and pest control workers reporting reoccurring problems taking care of rodents with common treatments. “Pest management professionals often told us that rodent control was becoming more difficult in some areas, even though they applied the effective rodenticides,” Yu said. So why are mice seemingly mutating at a higher rate? The team suspects behavior plays a significant role. Rats, generally, are more “cautious and suspicious” — making them less likely to chow down on food tainted by poison, the team said. “Rats are very clever,” Yu added. “They will approach the novel food many times before they really take the food or the bait.” What larger implications does this research hold? Yu’s team warns that a growing resistance to our control efforts means rodents have little to slow their spread of disease and parasites through our homes. ...read more read less