A Polyvinyl Chloride Bait Station for Dispensing Rabies Vaccine to Raccoons in Suburban Landscapes

Hand-baiting and helicopter distribution are commonly used to distribute vaccine-laden baits to help control raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies in suburban landscapes. These techniques can be labor intensive and costly. We designed and tested a polyvinyl chloride bait station as an alternative method to dispense the baits to raccoons. Our goal was to build an inexpensive, portable, and weather-resistant bait station that minimized nontarget species visitation. We tested the bait station over a 2-year period. We used infrared-triggered cameras (IRCs) to quantify animal visitation to bait stations. During the study IRCs provided 522 photographs of animals present at bait stations; 90.3% of all animals photographed were raccoons. In 2003 and 2004, approximately 4,651 (93 baits/km(2)) and 2,960 (59 baits/km(2)) baits were removed from the bait stations, respectively. We believe the bait stations could potentially replace or supplement hand-baiting and helicopter distribution as a cost-effective method for dispensing rabies vaccine to raccoons in suburban landscapes.