New instructions in Gazette No. 5 legally override the old printed label, even on existing SGAR stock.
Peter McCarthy
Your move, worked into the run
- Get the new instructions on every phone and every clipboard. Download the mandatory instructions from APVMA Gazette No. 5. If you apply SGARs, this is now the law. If you commission pest services, ask your provider to confirm they are working under the new conditions.
- Work the new rules into the run. At each site's next scheduled visit, check every SGAR placement against the 2-metre rule, flag every outdoor mouse station, confirm every outdoor station is tamper-resistant, weather-resistant and secured, and identify the sites where the 35-day cycle now means extra visits. Audited food and healthcare sites first.
- Update your service estimates and agreements. The new requirements cost real time on every visit. Get your service planning and time estimates aligned with them so the compliance work is actually accounted for.
- Start building non-chemical capability. Mechanical trapping, physical exclusion and Advanced Monitoring sit outside the SGAR restrictions entirely. That is not just flexibility for today, it is a service model you do not have to rebuild every time the chemical rules tighten. Given where the review is heading, that matters.
- Call your clients before they call you. They are reading the same headlines about rat poison leaving the shelves. A proactive chat about the new rules, and how your program adapts, is the strongest thing you can do right now to hold trust.
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Key Takeaways
The APVMA has recommended SGARs become Restricted Chemical Products. What binds you right now is different: a 12-month suspension with new mandatory instructions, from 24 March 2026.
The old printed label no longer governs the job. The new instructions in APVMA Gazette No. 5 do, and they are enforceable under state and territory law.
The new rules add time, documentation or cost to every chemical rodent program. None of them touch device-based control, which sits outside the restrictions entirely.
Running SGAR programs? Work the new rules into your next scheduled visit at each site. Commissioning pest services? Ask your provider to confirm they work under the Gazette No. 5 conditions.
Sources and references
- APVMA, 'APVMA certifies that second generation anticoagulant rodenticides should be restricted chemical products,' 10 March 2026: apvma.gov.au (a recommendation to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; the Restricted Chemical Product declaration is not yet in force).
- APVMA, 'Review of anticoagulant rodenticides' and the Anticoagulant Rodenticides Review Technical Report, December 2025: apvma.gov.au (8 actives across 168 products, more than 1,700 studies and published articles considered).
- Act for Birds, 'Over 280 experts call on the Australian Government to regulate dangerous SGAR poisons,' 2025: actforbirds.org
- APVMA Gazette No. 5, Tuesday 10 March 2026: mandatory SGAR instructions (the deemed permit conditions), in force from 24 March 2026 for 12 months.
- Retail exit reporting, 2025 to 2026 (Amazon Australia removed SGARs in December 2025; Coles removed them from shelves; Woolworths briefly restocked discounted stock and committed to cease selling by July 2026; Bunnings committed to remove affected products by 30 June 2026), including Yahoo News AU retail reporting of 23 May 2026.
- HACCP International Pest Management Standard, Issue 2.0: pest management as a prerequisite support programme within a HACCP food-safety system.
- Additional Australian sources worth linking: APVMA anticoagulant rodenticide review page; Agsafe SGAR update; state health 'sensitive places' factsheets (for example QLD Health, Medicines and Poisons Act 2019); FSANZ Food Standards Code Standards 3.2.2 and 3.2.3.
