Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012(India).
Encapsulated zinc phosphide baits were evaluated to study the response on active burrows of Nisokia indica vis-a-vis conventional zinc phosphide rodent baits exhibiting low efficacy due to its moisture prone nature. In conventional pellet balts, the acceptance ranged from 36 to 76%, bait discarding was in the descending order from 8 to 4% on the first two days, bait nipping was 4 to 8%, burrow plugging was 44 to 16% and relative % mortality ranged from 4 to 60. On ihe other hand, in encapsulated baits; acceptance, balt discardlng, nipping of bait, burrow plugging, and relative mortality ranged from 48 to 60%, 8 to 0%, 0 to 8%, 36 to 9% and 16 to 84%, respectiveiy. Evidently, encapsulated zinc phosphide baits showed higher efficacy than the pellet baits.
