Problem Solving

Is Rat Poison Legal? Rodenticide Bans by State and Province

In most of the US and Canada, yes, if it is the kind sold to homeowners in a bait station. The strongest poisons are already off consumer shelves in both countries. California is the only state we found where most home use is banned today. Rhode Island's ban on store sales starts March 1, 2027, and British Columbia keeps the strongest baits for essential services.

It depends on where you live and on which poison is in the box. Across the US and Canada, a homeowner can buy and use a consumer bait station. The fight is over the stronger baits that pest control companies use. California has banned almost every use of the common ones. Rhode Island has passed a law that will do the same. British Columbia has locked the strongest ones away from everyone but essential services.

We read each rule in its own text or on the agency's page: two federal rules, two state laws, one provincial rule and five bills that did not pass. If rats are coming for the seed, the fix that makes poison unneeded is on mice and rats at the feeder.

What counts as rat poison#

A rodenticide is a pesticide made to kill rats and mice. Almost every law on this page is about one family of them, the anticoagulants. An anticoagulant stops blood from clotting. British Columbia's page puts it plainly: they kill by "causing death by internal bleeding."

The laws split that family in two, and the split decides everything.

• First-generation anticoagulants: warfarin, chlorophacinone and diphacinone. California and Rhode Island both define them by that list.
• Second-generation anticoagulants: brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum and difethialone. The laws and agencies call them SGARs. British Columbia warns that "Rodents only need one feeding to get a lethal dose." Its list leaves out difenacoum.

Second-generation baits are the bigger worry for wildlife. British Columbia says their risk of secondary poisoning is "higher than first-generation products because the active ingredients stay in animal tissue for a long time after feeding." Secondary poisoning means an animal is poisoned by eating a rodent that ate the bait. That is how a hawk at your feeder gets a dose.

Some poisons are not anticoagulants at all. The EPA names bromethalin, cholecalciferol and zinc phosphide, which "are not anticoagulants." None of the state or provincial bans we read names them. A bait station is a closed box that holds the bait so a rodent can reach it and a child or pet should not.

The rules we read#

Read the "Status" column first. Five rows are bills that failed.

Everywhere else on this list, a consumer bait station is still legal to buy and use. British Columbia's rule reaches only second-generation bait, which homeowners could not buy anyway.

Why the answers online disagree#

Search the question and the pest control pages tell you California is "the only state" with a ban. Others say rat poison is banned across Canada. Both are out of date or too broad, and you can check each one.

"California is the only state." That was true until June 18, 2026, when Rhode Island's governor signed S 2795. It is still true of bans in force today, because Rhode Island's first step starts March 1, 2027. A page that says "the only state" without a date is reading a 2024 map.

"Banned in Canada." Canada did take second-generation bait out of homeowner products. Health Canada says "domestic class products containing second-generation anticoagulants (brodifacoum, bromadiolone and difethialone) are prohibited." Homeowner products with first-generation bait are still allowed, in a bait station. Only British Columbia went further, and only for professional second-generation use.

"Connecticut banned them in 2025." One search result says so. The state's own bill record says HB 6915 got a favorable committee report and was "Tabled for the Calendar" on March 18, 2025. It never got a vote, and there is no Public Act number.

"California banned rat poison." It banned use, not every poison, and not for everyone. The code section is about anticoagulants. Farms, food warehouses, slaughterhouses and canneries are exempt, along with public health and water work. The homeowner is the one who lost the option.

One bait station in five places#

Take one product and walk it through the rules. Suppose rats are tunneling under your feeder pole. You pick up a ready-to-use bait station from the hardware store. The bait inside is diphacinone, one of the three poisons the EPA lists for consumer bait stations. Here is how that reads in five places in November 2026.

1. Columbus, Ohio. Legal to buy and use. No rule we read bans it there. The EPA rules have already shaped the product: block or paste bait, in a station, and no second-generation poison.
2. Sacramento, California. Using it at your house has been unlawful since January 1, 2024. A diphacinone product labeled for a banned use "can only be sold to an end user by a DPR-licensed pest control dealer," the state pesticide agency says. Your back yard is not on the exempt list.
3. Providence, Rhode Island. Legal today. From March 1, 2027, no consumer or online store may sell it. From January 1, 2029, using it is banned too. The law's use exemptions cover second-generation bait for agencies and food sites, so none would cover a homeowner's diphacinone station.
4. Vancouver, British Columbia. The provincial ban reaches second-generation bait only, and the province's page does not mention first-generation products. Health Canada's rule still applies: the bait must stay in a bait station.
5. Denver, Colorado. Legal. The state bill that would have banned certain rodenticides died on April 20, 2026.

In all five places, the rats are still eating the seed. A metal can with a tight lid and a tray under the feeder end that everywhere, as storing bird seed and cutting the spill explain. No law bans either one.

The federal floor: EPA and Health Canada#

United States. The EPA's page on rodenticide restrictions sets what a store may sell you, wherever you live. Second-generation anticoagulants "no longer are registered for use in products geared toward consumers and are registered only for the commercial pest control and structural pest control markets." Consumer products are "ready-to-use bait stations" with bait "in block or paste form." "Pelleted baits no longer are permitted" in consumer products. The bait in them is bromethalin, chlorophacinone or diphacinone.

The EPA also uses package size to keep the strong baits away from shoppers. Second-generation products for professionals "must be sold in containers holding at least 16 pounds of bait." Professional first-generation and bromethalin products need at least four pounds. A refillable consumer station may come with up to one pound of refill bait.

Canada. Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) re-evaluated six rodenticides in 2006 and 2007. Its rules for homeowner products, which it calls the domestic class, are short. No second-generation bait. And "domestic class products must always be used in bait stations," sold "packaged with a bait station." Makers had until December 31, 2012 to change their labels.

California: three laws, one code section#

All of California's rules sit in Food and Agricultural Code section 12978.7. Three bills built it up, one poison group at a time. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) sums them up this way.

• AB 1788 (2020). From January 1, 2021, it bans use of the four second-generation poisons. CDPR says that covers "residential or home uses and most industrial and institutional uses."
• AB 1322 (2023). "Effective January 1, 2024, most uses of the rodenticide diphacinone are prohibited." Diphacinone products for a banned use may be sold to an end user only by a licensed pest control dealer.
• AB 2552 (2024). It "prohibits use of remaining FGARs (chlorophacinone and warfarin) except at certain sites," in CDPR's words.

The code adds a stricter rule for wild places. Both generations are banned in a "wildlife habitat area," which the code defines as "a park or wildlife refuge managed by a state agency, regional government, or quasi-government agency, or by a special district."

The exemptions are for jobs, not homes. The code exempts "agricultural activities," which it says include a food warehouse, a slaughterhouse or cannery, and a brewery or winery. It also exempts government public health work, water and power infrastructure, mosquito and vector control, invasive species work on islands, and research.

None of this has an end date. The second-generation ban runs "until the director makes the certification" that a review is done and new limits are in place. CDPR has proposed those limits, including a cap of "35 consecutive days" of baiting and "105 days annually per site." Comments closed November 8, 2025. That is a proposal, not the law. For feeding birds in the state, see California.

Rhode Island: sales end in 2027 and 2028#

Rhode Island passed the second state ban we found. It is Public Law chapter 134 of 2026, from S 2795, and its own text says "Enacted 06/18/2026." It works in three steps.

1. March 1, 2027. First-generation bait "shall be prohibited from being sold in 'consumer' stores and online retail stores." The law names "drug stores, grocery stores, hardware stores, club stores, and similar retail outlets."
2. January 1, 2028. The same ban for second-generation bait.
3. January 1, 2029. "The use of any pesticides registered in the state as a first or second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide" is banned.

The sales ban does not stop a wholesaler selling to a business that employs a certified or licensed applicator. The use exemptions are narrower than California's, and they cover second-generation bait only. One is for state and town workers doing public health, water supply or mosquito work. Another is for medical waste and FDA sites. The last is for food warehouses, food plants, and a "distillery, meadery, brewery, or winery." The law also starts a rodent pest management pilot program that ends October 1, 2029.

Rhode Island already has one rat rule that touches feeders: Cranston allows one feeder per property, as bird feeder rat ordinances explains.

British Columbia: essential services only#

British Columbia's rules on second-generation bait took effect January 21, 2023. The province's page says it in one line: "If you're not on the essential services list, you're not allowed to use these products."

• Who may use them: essential services, and licensed pest control companies hired by one. The places are listed in Schedule 6 of the Integrated Pest Management Regulation. They include health care, emergency response, utilities, food and farm sites, transport and waste.
• Buying: "A licence is now required to purchase SGARs."
• How long: "A baiting cycle cannot exceed 35 consecutive days." All cycles together "cannot exceed a total of 120 days per year."
• No baiting just in case: "Preventative baiting with SGARs (for example, baiting without recent signs of rodent activity) is prohibited."

The province names brodifacoum, bromadiolone and difethialone. Its page does not cover first-generation bait, so those stay under Health Canada's rules. Feeder by-laws in other Canadian towns are on are bird feeders illegal in Canada.

The bills that failed#

Five more states tried in 2025 and 2026. None got a bill into law, but they show where the next ban is likely to come from.

Colorado. SB26-062, "Rodenticide Use Restrictions," would have banned "selling, distributing, applying, or using certain types of rodenticide and rodent glue traps," outside public health emergencies. The Senate passed it 22 to 12 on March 18, 2026. On April 20, 2026 the House agriculture committee postponed it indefinitely, 11 to 2, which ended it. Its glue trap half is on are glue traps illegal.

New York. S7532, the RAPTORS Act, would have banned selling or using second-generation bait except by certified applicators. It would also have banned it "within five hundred feet of a designated wildlife habitat area." The Senate passed it on June 5, 2025. It died in the Assembly on January 7, 2026. An amended version went to the Senate Rules Committee on June 5, 2026 and got no vote.

New Hampshire. HB 1018 was titled "prohibiting the use of certain second generation anticoagulant rodenticides." The committee voted 11 to 3 that it was "inexpedient to legislate," and the House agreed on March 5, 2026.

Connecticut. HB 6915 of 2025 aimed "to restrict the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides." It was tabled on March 18, 2025, with no floor vote.

Vermont. H.326 is "an act relating to the regulation of the use of rodenticides." It went to the House agriculture committee on February 25, 2025, and the record shows no step after the committee's hearings.

Why it matters under a bird feeder#

A feeder yard is a hunting ground. Spilled seed draws mice and rats, and many of the hawks and owls that hunt the yard take rodents too. That is how the poison reaches them. British Columbia's page says hawks and owls "can die or suffer long-term effects from eating poisoned rodents."

The best recent count comes from California's wildlife agency. In its 2024 report, its wildlife lab tested 54 dead raptors for anticoagulants. Twenty-nine of them (53.7%) had been exposed to at least one. Ten were cases of anticoagulant poisoning. Twenty-four had second-generation poison in them and 16 had first-generation. Nineteen carried two or more. Those birds were tested in a state that had banned home use of second-generation bait three years earlier.

That is why our pesticides and birds page says to pull the bait. How to live with one is on hawks at the feeder, and the common visitor is the Cooper's hawk. If you are not sure what is eating the seed at night, start with my feeder empties overnight. Rats and mice draw snakes too, as snakes near the feeder covers.

So what works where the poison is banned, and where it is not? The same three steps. Stop the spill with a tray and hull-free seed. Store seed in metal. Use enclosed snap traps where you need a trap. The full order is on ranked fixes for rodents. A bird that has eaten bait, or a hawk acting sick, needs a rehabilitator, and finding a licensed wildlife rehabilitator explains how.

Where this page stops applying#

This page reads two federal rules, two state laws, one province and five failed bills. It is not a survey of all 50 states and 13 provinces and territories. A state we did not read may have a rule, and a city or county can restrict pesticide use on its own land. We did not fetch the chaptered text of AB 2552, so its start date is not given here. We did not read Vermont's bill text, only its title and status. California's statute text came from a copy of the code, because the legislature's own site refused our request. The bans here cover anticoagulants. Bromethalin and the other non-anticoagulants are outside every ban we read. That does not make them safe: the EPA says each is "toxic in other ways." Your lease, condo rules or pest contract may say more. This is a reading of laws, agency pages and bills, not legal advice.