The California Poison-Free Wildlife Act (AB 2552)
went into effect on January 1, 2025
This new California law supersedes the two rodenticide bills previously passed into law (AB 1788 (in 2020) and AB 1322 (in 2023)), which prohibited most uses, with limited exemptions, of the second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and difethialone), and the first generation anticoagulant rodenticide diphacinone. AB 2552 adds the same existing prohibitions, with the same exempted uses, to the first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides chlorophacinone and warfarin.
On September 25, 2024, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 2552 to prohibit most uses of chlorophacinone and warfarin in California, due to their perceived threat to mountain lions and other non-target wildlife. Effective January 1, 2025, products containing anticoagulants are required to be sold by licensed dealers, and only for the allowed uses, to applicators with specific licenses or certificates.
The law prohibits uses of anticoagulant rodenticides in and around restaurants (that do not have an attached brewery or winery), grocery stores, airports, offices, construction sites, ports and terminal buildings, shipyards, timber yards, schools, shopping malls, sewers, and sewage treatment plants. In addition, many non-production agricultural uses (such as cemeteries, golf courses, parks, highways, and railroads) are also prohibited.
If you have any questions about whether a use site is prohibited under the law, please contact your County Agricultural Commissioner.
CDFA – County Liaison Office – County Commissioners & Sealers Contact Information
California Department of Food and Agriculture’s County/State Liaison Office
- Use by a mosquito or vector control district
- Eradication of non-native invasive species on the offshore islands
- Eradication of invasive rodent populations for the protection of threatened or endangered species or their habitats as determined by the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.
- To control actual of potential infestations associated with an urgent, non-routine public health need declared by the State Public Health Officer or a local public health officer.
- Under a research authorization issued by the Dept. of Pesticide Regulation or for certain research funded by the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture.
- At certain Federal Drug Administration (FDA) registered and inspected facilities.
- On agricultural sites producing any horticultural, viticultural, aquacultural, forestry, dairy, livestock, poultry, bee, or farm product.
- At warehouses used to store food for human or animal consumption.
- At food manufacturing or processing plants, such as a slaughterhouse or cannery.
- At factories, breweries, or wineries.
- On-farm water storage and conveyance facilities, or on-farm sites storing rights-of-way or other on-farm transportation infrastructure materials.
Resources from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation
If you have any questions about this law or determining if your use site meets an exemption, please contact your County Agricultural Commissioner.
What are the impacts from Reevaluation of diphacinone and AB1322?
- Loss of products for California residents, farmers, and businesses
- Loss of rodent control tools for IPM, resulting in increased costs for rodent control and reduced effectiveness
- Rise in rodent populations, leading to increased disease transmission (hantavirus, plague, typhus) to people in California
- Increased costs to Californians from property damage, food contamination, crop loss, and costs passed on from businesses for higher costs of rodent control