Poisoning rodents is dumb anyway. Just keep them as pets and amass an army.

Rodenticides are pretty awful for wild animals. They've also been linked to devastating mange outbreaks in wild cats, such as bobcats, in other states.

I had a dog pass away because of rodenticide at just five years old. Ban the shit.

Such a sad story. Just get a cat. They make great mousers.

And coyotes and deer

Cats are often not that great at efficiently killing rodents (a working dog would likely be better for that). None of my childhood cats had much interest in doing more than slowly torturing or dismembering the occasional mouse. I would also personally worry about the spread of toxoplasma from mice to pet cats.

The welfare of cats as dedicated mousers is also often highly questionable at best, depending on the situation. For instance, the most beloved barn cat at my mom's barn was just killed by a group of coyotes as he was essentially allowed to free-roam.

We live out in the woods because it's what we could afford and when you live in the woods you get a lot of mice.

For years we stuck to traps but they number of mice was overwhelming. We could burn through the big box of traps in a week. We also did all the mitigation strategies recommended by folks online and exterminators.

We finally caved and switched to bait boxes and have had almost none since.

If there was an effective way that wasn't poison, we'd take it, but afaik there isn't one yet.

Okay so problem rats IL jut let my cat deal with, got it

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Skill issue

Is there anything legally preventing me from amassing an army of wild rodents?

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https://youtube.com/shorts/kpEBc-QLaEs?feature=share

You don't need poison that will eventually end up in our soil and water. Build a better mouse trap.

1. Form llc 2. Hire rodents as 1099 contractors to keep costs low 3. ???? 4. World domination

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Our head of RR (rodent resources) is an Eastern Gray. Mr. Fluffles does not take kindly to that, I would suggest withdrawing your application.

Sad update, the rehab facility says the Bald eagle has died tonight.

There are baits that don't have secondary poisoning. Mouse-x for example, is effectively potato starch.

When choosing bait, go for the ones that are safe from secondary.

That's a risk of barn cats. They live a shorter life, but if you're willing to care for a barn cat, there are also always more to adopt.

Would never turn a kitten into a barn cat, only adults that are already mostly feral.

Bird law in this country, it’s not governed by reason

Cats are an invasive species, and should be kept indoors or out on a leash. They also suck at controlling mice populations.

Outdoor cat?

Its not always easy but any building can be mouse proofed. For years, we'd catch multiple mice in traps inside every week and couldn't figure out how they were getting in, but then inspired by this video, I built a mouse house with cotton balls, bait, and $10 of fluorescent powder. Sure enough, within a week there was a trail of fluorescent powder that could be tracked with a UV flashlight down a door frame, across the floor, and over to very small gap between the carpet and the wall where the sub floor wasn't cut tight to the log walls. After filling this gap there were no mice for while, but after a few months they found a new path. Repeated the process, and tracked them to a gap around the water heater vent: they were actually climbing up through the channels of a metal roof, and then down along the vent. After blocking that off, we have been mouse free for 3 years.

This is a log home surrounded by woods more than a quarter mile from the nearest building. If it can be mouse proofed, anything can. The only 100% foolproof method is to fully seal your house with no gaps a mouse can fit though.

Definitely worse for outdoor wildlife. Outdoor cats kill thousands of birds purely for sport.

relevant webcomic

The bucket trap eliminated all mice for us. You can buy a lid or make your own. Final mitigation I found a well used quarter sized hole between chimney and soffit..nothing since.

We had issues with mice getting in the house. Rather than put down poison, we stuffed the small holes where the siding meets the foundation with steel wool. We haven’t had any issues since. The mice don’t chew through it. Bonus, the snake that had taken up residence outside our front door found another place to live.

Outdoors cats are worse than poison. They are responsible for almost 2/3’s of the birds extinct in the US. If I remember that stat right. We should be eradicating feral cats, and putting a ban on outdoor cats.

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looks contemplatively at wall mounted rodent whacking club “Whelp, sometimes the old ways are the best”

No Joke - if you aren't too squeamish check out Suffolk and Northfolk Rat Pack Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@SuffolkandNorfolkRatPack

It's still a savage and brutal way to solve a rat problem and this is over in the UK - but considering it's not lethal to other animals like birds of prey, it's better I suppose.

Toxoplasmosis is generally produced by cats in order to infect the mice which makes them less fearful of cat urine smell and of cats in general.

Unless I missed some big revelation that it’s reversed?

The exterminator who does our baits bi-annually said they weren't anticoagulants and were fairly safe around pets.

I assume this means they aren't at risk for secondary poisoning

That would be worse than poison for the local wildlife

We have 30's house that is balloon framing so they can pretty much move freely. I did a lot of remediation work with copper mesh and spray foam which cut back on the places we knew they were coming in.

I'll look into the fluorescent powder method, might help us see spots we missed.

I did this too but was recommended to switch to copper wool/mesh.

It's a little pricier, but it doesn't degrade as much as steel and is still unpleasant for mice even after oxidizing.

This is awful news. That poor bird. 😢

Sorta - cats are the principal host for T. gondii as it can only reproduce inside of cats. The altered behavior of mice is one of the ways cats can become infected (by eating the mice with tissue T. gondii cysts). Once infected, cats excrete T. gondii oocysts in their feces that can go on to infect other animals or people. Thats why pregnant people are told to not clean their cat's litterbox due to the risk of coming into contact with oocysts - fetal toxoplasmosis can cause birth defects and spontaneous abortions IIRC.

I thought this was illegal but you still see your big chain hardware stores carrying what they call “ animal safe bait “ . It is far from safe !

:(

You can reuse traps you know.

Unless you are somehow killing hundreds of mice, how are you going through a big box?

I live in the woods too and just use these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/TOMCAT-Press-N-Set-Mouse-Trap-0360710PM/205563821

They say disposable, but they can easily be reset. Each trap has killed dozens of mice.

We use the cheapo wooden ones and they almost always absolutely destroy the mice, blood and guts everywhere.

I used to try to reuse them but the trigger plates often need to be re-bent which is gross to do when they covered in gibs.

That, or it doesn't kill them all the way so it's easier just to toss the whole contraption.

If that's your experience with the cheap wooden ones.

Just grab a couple of these and give them a shot. Walk into any home improvement store and they likely have them and they are only like $6.

It's a very clean kill, I've never had to worry about cleaning up blood or guts from the floor.