JInky Abarca, Sheila Silmete, Dioneli Mae Supapo (February 1999)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
Rats, since the beginning of history, have been giving mankind lots of headaches. Aside from causing destruction to our properties, these house pests carry deadly diseases. Many attempts were made to get rid of rats, however, due to the rats’ highly adaptive characteristics, they could easily detect substances harmful to them. As a result, many poisons turned to be ineffective.
After reading an article in the Bato Balani magazine stating that avocado seeds proved poisonous to rats in one study, the researchers decided to test the seeds’ effectiveness.
This study tested the effectiveness of Persia americana (avocado) seeds as poison for rodents. Eight white mice were used to test its effectiveness. The study used four treatments with two replicates for each. Treatment 1 were given 25% powdered seeds, 75% feeds; treatment 2 were given 50% powdered seeds, 50% feeds; treatment 3 were given 75% powdered seed, 25% feeds. Treatment 4, the control, were fed 100% feeds.
Results showed that avocado seeds proved ineffective in killing rats. Treatment 1 and 2 showed 50% mortality rate while treatment 3 showed 0% mortality rate.