Pest Control, Not Farming, Applies 87 Percent of California’s Rat Poison
Key result: Structural pest control made 87.4 percent of California’s 3.48 million reported rodenticide bait applications in 2023, landscape maintenance 9.6 percent and agricultural production 0.1 percent. Of the second-generation anticoagulants still used after the 2021 restriction, structural pest control applied 97.1 percent.
A question the rodenticide debate rarely asks
Rodenticide policy in California is usually framed around wildlife and farms. California’s pesticide use reports record who actually applies rodent baits: pest control businesses, landscapers, agricultural growers, public health agencies and others such as vertebrate pest control districts. We counted reported applications of ten rodenticide active ingredients in 2022 and 2023 by sector, excluding aluminum and magnesium phosphide, which are mainly fumigants for stored commodities.
Who applies rodenticides
What it means. Rodent baiting in California is overwhelmingly a pest control activity. Of 3,482,608 reported applications in 2023, 3,042,550 were structural pest control. Landscape maintenance made 9.6 percent; vertebrate pest control, rights-of-way and regulatory programmes 2.8 percent; agricultural production 0.1 percent. The same split appears in 2022: 87.4 percent structural.
What limits it. Applications are what businesses and agencies report; homeowners’ own use of store-bought baits is not in the reports. An application of a bait station and an application of a burrow bait both count as one.
Compound by compound
What it means. The anticoagulants and the newer non-anticoagulants are pest control products: structural pest control made 94.9 percent of bromethalin, 97.6 percent of cholecalciferol and 86.3 percent of diphacinone applications. Strychnine and zinc phosphide are the exception: landscape maintenance made 84.8 and 80.7 percent of their applications.
The restricted compounds
AB 1788 restricted brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum and difethialone from 2021. The law, Food and Agricultural Code section 12978.7, exempts use for “agricultural activities”, which it says include activities at “a warehouse used to store foods for human or animal consumption”, an agricultural food production site such as a slaughterhouse or cannery, and “a factory, brewery, or winery”. In 2023, 271,920 applications of the restricted compounds were reported. Structural pest control made 97.1 percent of them; agricultural production 0.1 percent. Whatever exemptions the remaining use relies on, it is recorded almost entirely as structural pest control, consistent with buildings such as food facilities being treated by pest control businesses.
What limits it. The reports do not record which exemption applied. Our county analysis found ten licences made two thirds of the remaining restricted use, and our wildlife outcome analysis found wildlife exposure unchanged.
Checks
1. Sector definitions
Method. Structural pest control is site code 10; landscape maintenance site code 30; public health site code 50; agricultural production is records filed on the production agriculture report forms; the rest is other reported use, led by vertebrate pest control (74,755 applications in 2023), regulatory pest control (14,968) and rights of way (5,710).
2. Reconciliation
Result. The five sectors sum to the all-sector total in both years: 3,042,550 structural, 335,118 landscape, 97,730 other, 4,304 agricultural and 2,906 public health applications make 3,482,608 in 2023. Every compound and sector is in the CSV.
Download the data
The tables in this report are published as CSV files under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You may republish, remix and build on them, including commercially, with attribution to The Pest Control Brief and a link to this page.
How to cite this report
The Pest Control Brief, “Pest Control, Not Farming, Applies 87 Percent of California's Rat Poison, and 97 Percent of the Restricted Kind”, 2 October 2026. https://thepestcontrolbrief.com/who-uses-rodenticides-california/
References
- California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Pesticide Use Report annual archives for 2022 and 2023. files.cdpr.ca.gov/pub/outgoing/pur_archives/. Accessed 2 October 2026.
- California Food and Agricultural Code section 12978.7. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov FAC 12978.7. Accessed 5 October 2026.
- California Legislature. AB 1788, California Ecosystems Protection Act of 2020. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov AB 1788. Accessed 2 October 2026.
How the figures were built
Scope. Every 2022 and 2023 Pesticide Use Report record naming diphacinone, bromethalin, cholecalciferol, chlorophacinone, difethialone, bromadiolone, brodifacoum, strychnine, zinc phosphide or warfarin.
Measure. Application counts by sector.
Limitations. Consumer use is not reported. Phosphide fumigants excluded.
Last reviewed: 5 October 2026.
For reporters
Most quotable statistics
- Structural pest control made 87.4 percent of California’s reported rodenticide bait applications in 2023.
- Agricultural production made 0.1 percent.
- Structural pest control applied 97.1 percent of the restricted second-generation anticoagulants still used in 2023.
- Landscape maintenance made about 85 percent of strychnine applications.
Press summary
California’s rat poison is applied overwhelmingly by pest control businesses rather than farms, according to an analysis of state pesticide use reports by The Pest Control Brief. Of 3.48 million reported rodenticide bait applications in 2023, structural pest control made 87.4 percent and agricultural production 0.1 percent. Pest control also applied 97 percent of the restricted second-generation anticoagulants still in use after the state’s 2021 restriction.
Headlines editors could use
- It’s exterminators, not farmers, who apply California’s rat poison
- 97% of California’s restricted rodenticide use is structural pest control
- Who really uses rodenticides?
Questions
Who uses the most rodenticide in California?
Structural pest control businesses: 87.4 percent of reported rodenticide bait applications in 2023.
Do farmers use rodenticides?
Very little on these records: agricultural production made 0.1 percent of reported applications in 2023.
Who uses the restricted second-generation rodenticides now?
Almost entirely structural pest control, 97.1 percent of the 271,920 reported applications in 2023.
Are homeowners’ rat poisons included?
No. Products people buy and apply themselves are not in the use reports.
Where can I get the data?
The CSV above has every compound and sector for both years.
