patrick.net

I've only ever used traps, don't want my dogs accidentally getting poisoned. But if you have a mouse/rate problem, the real issue is your house is not secure in some area.

Rats Have Rights Too! (as opposed to Fucking White Males)

I didn't know that rats could vote.

Rats are like us (physiologically speaking), so maybe they should get to vote. They couldn't do worse than people anyways.

Ceffer says

I didn't know that rats could vote.

If dead people can vote why not rats, at least they are legally here.

Does this mean RX warfarin is being banned?

The rats were voted into power in CA. Banning the poison is a a self-preservation tactic.

What about gopher poison? Still kosher?

This is hysterical. Amazon will ship mouse/rat poison to your front door. Not a chance in hell authorities will be able to enforce this as well. What a complete waste of time.

WookieMan says

Amazon will ship mouse/rat poison to your front door.

Except they won't once the ban is in effect.

The problem here (that critics aren't addressing) is that the poison is cumulative and devastating to the entire food chain. Predators eat poisoned rats etc, become poisoned themselves, die off, then the rodent population is left to REALLY explode. In the long term, it becomes like Chairman Mao's initiative to kill off millions of sparrows to save crops, which resulted in an explosion of crop eating insects far worse than whatever was done by the sparrows themselves.

https://www.npr.org/2014/06/21/323970068/la-mountain-lion-a-poster-cat-for-californias-rat-poison-problem

They expect Californians to eat rats soon.

Automan Empire says

The problem here (that critics aren't addressing) is that the poison is cumulative and devastating to the entire food chain. Predators eat poisoned rats etc, become poisoned themselves, die off, then the rodent population is left to REALLY explode. In the long term, it becomes like Chairman Mao's initiative to kill off millions of sparrows to save crops, which resulted in an explosion of crop eating insects far worse than whatever was done by the sparrows themselves.

https://www.npr.org/2014/06/21/323970068/la-mountain-lion-a-poster-cat-for-californias-rat-poison-problem

While there's logic to what you're saying, I'm not certain the amounts of poison would impact a full grown ass mountain lion. The assumption that a predator is just going around, likely near really populated areas eating already dead, poisoned rats seems a bit of a stretch. Large rats are 800 grams and if poison is being used, they'll likely eat it at younger, lighter weights of say maybe 1/2lbs. Basically there's just not that much poison in it to transfer up the food chain or if mountain lions are eating them in city streets (not happening).

Mind you I'm no biologist, so I could be wrong admittedly. But I've yet to see piles of dead animals in and around cities where they are most certainly using poison to control rat populations.

Automan Empire says

The problem here (that critics aren't addressing) is that the poison is cumulative and devastating to the entire food chain. Predators eat poisoned rats etc, become poisoned themselves, die off, then the rodent population is left to REALLY explode. In the long term, it becomes like Chairman Mao's initiative to kill off millions of sparrows to save crops, which resulted in an explosion of crop eating insects far worse than whatever was done by the sparrows themselves.

https://www.npr.org/2014/06/21/323970068/la-mountain-lion-a-poster-cat-for-californias-rat-poison-problem

This would affect coyotes even more due to their lower body mass, but somehow these things are thriving: we used to have just two resident coyotes in our neighborhood for years but this year I spot a gang of 5 or 6 roaming around just after sunset almost every night when I walk my dog.

jazz_music says

TDS!

Great comment and content! Thanks for the contribute!