The New Rat Bait Rules for Homeowners

What actually changed, and what did not

It is worth being precise, because a lot of what has been written about this is a bit loose. This is not a new law and it is not a ban. It is a suspension, which is a temporary measure the regulator can use while it works through a longer review. It runs for one year from 24 March 2026.

During that year, these products can only be supplied and used in line with a specific set of instructions published by the APVMA. Those instructions sit on top of the label. Where the packet says one thing and the instructions say another, the instructions win.

That is also why you may have noticed a printed sheet handed to you at the checkout, or a leaflet stuck to the packet. Retailers are now required to physically give you a copy of the instructions when you buy one of these products. It is not marketing, it is the actual legal document, and it is worth reading.

Can I still buy rat bait?

Yes. Nothing about the suspension stops you walking into a hardware store or supermarket and buying rodent bait, and you do not need a licence or a qualification to do it.

Two things have changed at the shelf, though. Pack sizes are now limited, so the larger packs some products used to come in are no longer available. The cap is set product by product, commonly 150 g or 300 g depending on the line. And because new stock cannot be manufactured with the old labelling during the suspension, some product lines may become harder to find as existing stock works through.

The four rules that now apply at home

New rules only apply to poisons and baits that contain a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide (SGAR). These are the instructions for products sold for domestic use. They are worth reading properly, because two of them are the opposite of what most people have always done.

• 1

  Do not use it outdoors. At all.

  This is the change that catches people out. Household rodent baits are now indoor-only. Bait in the garden, along the back fence, under the deck, in the shed or beside the compost bin is no longer permitted use, no matter how obvious the rat runway looks.

• 2

  It has to be in a tamper-resistant bait station

  Loose pellets in a roof cavity, bait blocks tucked behind the fridge and open trays on the floor are all out. The bait has to be secured inside a proper tamper-resistant station, and where you can, that station should be fixed to the ground or to a structure so it cannot be dragged somewhere else.

• 3

  Thirty-five days, then stop and get help

  You cannot leave bait down indefinitely. The instruction is not to use the product for longer than 35 days when treating an infestation, and if rodents are still active after that, to seek advice from the supplier or call a pest control service. In plain terms, if a month of baiting has not fixed it, the baiting is not the answer.

• 4

  Go looking for the dead ones

  You are expected to search for and dispose of dead rodents each time you check the bait, rather than leaving them where they fall. Wrap them in paper, put them in a plastic bag and put that in the rubbish. The same goes for uneaten bait when you are finished.

Why the rules changed

The short answer is that these baits do not stop working when the rat dies.

A rat that has taken an anticoagulant bait does not die immediately. It keeps moving for several days, and during that time it is slower, more exposed and much easier to catch. Whatever eats it then takes on the poison too. That is called secondary poisoning, and it is the whole reason this review happened.

The animals on the receiving end are the ones most people would rather keep around. Boobook owls, barn owls and kookaburras hunt rodents directly. Goannas and quolls will happily scavenge a dead one. Blue-tongues get there by a different route again, eating the poisoned snails that collect around bait, which is why the instructions cover snails as well. Cats and dogs are exposed both ways, and that is the part that tends to land closest to home. The APVMA concluded that the way these products were being used was creating unacceptable risks to non-target animals, including native wildlife, pets and livestock.

Once you know that, the outdoor ban makes a lot more sense. Bait sitting in a garden is bait sitting where wildlife lives.

What to do to help prevent rodents coming from outside

1. Cut off the food. Fallen fruit, chicken feed, pet food left out overnight, open compost and unsecured bins are the four that matter most in Sydney backyards. Rats stay where dinner is reliable.
2. Close the way in. Rats fit through a gap the size of a twenty cent piece and mice through something closer to a pen lid. Weep holes, gaps under doors, torn vents, roof junctions and the point where pipes enter the wall are the usual entries.
3. Clear the harbourage. Woodpiles against the fence, long grass, dense ground cover against the house and stacked junk down the side give them somewhere to live. Moving it away from the building does most of the work.
4. Use traps outside instead of bait. Snap traps are still available and are not affected by these changes, since they are not a chemical product. Placed properly and checked daily, they deal with an outdoor problem without putting poison into the food chain.
5. Treat indoors properly if they are already inside. Bait is still permitted indoors, in a station, with the 35 day limit. That is where it now belongs.

When it is worth calling someone

You do not need a professional for one mouse in the pantry in April. It is worth making the call when the situation looks like one of these.

You have been baiting for a month and the activity has not dropped, which the instructions themselves now treat as the point to get advice. The problem is outdoors and proofing has not shifted it. You can hear them in the roof or the wall cavity, where finding and removing carcasses is not something you can realistically do yourself. You have pets, chooks or small children and you would rather the poison was handled by someone licensed. Or you rent, or live in a strata building, in which case the rodent problem may not be yours to fix at all.

Rodents are also a winter pest, not a summer one. They come indoors when it cools off and food gets scarce outside, which is why activity picks up from about April and stays up through the coldest months. If you want the detail on which species you are actually dealing with and how to tell them apart, our guide to rats and mice in Sydney covers the identification side.

If you manage a building rather than live in one, the commercial rules are different again, stricter in some places but more permissive outdoors. We have set those out in a separate guide to what the rodent baiting changes mean for commercial property, which is the one to read if you are on a strata committee, run a food business or look after a portfolio.