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Success!
After months of deliberation the EPA has made a decision to remove 2nd-generation rodenticides from the consumer market! Further, professional pest control operators using these poisons will now be required to use them only inside if exposure to children, pets and non-target animals is possible. This means target rodents will die away from areas where wildlife hunt.
Thank you to everyone who wrote to the EPA and spoke out on this issue!
Read more about WildCare's efforts to combat the poisoning of non-target wildlife (like hawks, owls and coyotes) below:
Patient #0061
WildCare members from spring of 2007 will be familiar with the case of Red-shouldered Hawk #0061, brought to WildCare suffering from anti-coagulant rodenticide poisoning that occurred in Golden Gate Park. This beautiful bird was released back to the park’s botanical garden after intensive treatment for poisoning while TV cameras brought the issue of rodenticide poisoning to public attention.
Several other hawks brought to WildCare had not been so lucky; they died within days of rodenticide poison being used in the area. Red-shoulder #0061 became the ambassador for a policy change by the San Francisco Department of the Environment, which now prohibits the use of certain rodent poisons outdoors to protect the park’s wildlife.
Second-Generation Rodenticides
Anti-coagulant poisons, known as “second-generation” or “singlefeed” rodenticides, are sold under various product names, and contain the active ingredients brodifacoum, bromadiolone and difethialone among others. They are strong enough to kill a rodent “after a single feeding.” A rodent consumes the poison at a bait station, and then slowly dies of internal hemorrhage. What makes these poisons so dangerous to wildlife is that, although a single feeding of poison will eventually kill, it takes four to seven days for the rodent to die. During this time rodents can consume more bait, raising the level of toxins in their bodies to a dose lethal to the larger animals that eat rodents and carrion, such as hawks, owls, foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks and coyotes.
San Francisco Ban; EPA AssessmentPatient #0061’s situation caused an uproar in San Francisco and led the city’s Department of the Environment to enact an immediate temporary ban on the use of “second-generation” anti-coagulant rodenticides in outdoor areas like Golden Gate Park. In May of 2007 the San Francisco Commission on the Environment voted to make this ban permanent, adding these rodent poisons to the city’s Restricted Poison list.
In the face of evidence that a wide variety of species including threatened and endangered species are dying from eating poisoned rodents, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also started considering limiting the use of these poisons throughout the country. WildCare supporters and others sent hundreds of letters to the EPA in favor of this ban.
When is Poison Appropriate
To those of us who work with wildlife, the answer is obvious: never. Poisoning alone never eliminates a pest animal problem, and the collateral damage outweighs all quick-fix fantasies. Poison used with other nuisance wildlife management techniques may seem effective, but if you use the other techniques, you won’t need the poisons anyway.
Outwitting Critters
Our houses, gardens, vineyards and farms are a great source of free food for hungry animals. The gardeners in Golden Gate Park believe that rodent populations are increased by park visitors who feed ducks and squirrels.
The only real way to eliminate pest animals is to remove what attracts them. Wildlife population size is determined by the amount of food and habitat available. Bird feeders provide gourmet dining for rodents. To prevent rodents from feasting at the feeder at night, place the feeder on a pole and clean up any seed that falls to the ground.
To exclude rodents from buildings, seal entrance locations. Keep a lid on trash pails and compost containers. The EPA agrees, noting in its Proposed Risk Mitigation Decision for Nine Rodenticides that “without habitat modification to make areas less attractive to commensal rodents, even eradication will not prevent new populations from recolonizing the habitat.”
In Golden Gate Park, part of the problem was solved by volunteers who made wire baskets to cover the plants the rodents were eating. Another solution the park plans to adopt is to add a trash pick-up on Saturdays, so that cans aren’t full when Sunday park visitors arrive.
Nature’s Best Rodent Control
Rodents play an important role in nature. Removing rodent food sources and habitat, while encouraging natural predators, is the only permanent solution. WildCare encourages natural forms of rodent control through exclusion and predator support. One family of hungry barn owls can consume more than 3,000 rodents in a nesting season. Placing a Hungry Owl Project nest box on your property can help control rodent populations throughout your neighborhood and beyond, while maintaining the naturally balanced food chain.
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