I received this message yesterday from a concerned pet owner and bird-
watcher with whom I have corresponded regarding her interest in and
sightings of a Cooper's Hawk and a Merlin in her neighborhood. I put
her onto a couple of sites online about Contrac (they included an MSDS
sheet), but I think some personal experiences dealing with this issue
would have extra impact. Many of us deal with this conflict and could
use some advice. The inquirer was also concerned with the possibility
of birds ingesting the grainlike poison directly from the ground.

Please respond on-list if you have some direct experience with this or
have info to share.

Thanks.

Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net

---------------excerpts from the message that stimulated my post - I
have permission to share this online...


Rat poison

I have had an exterminator poisoning my rats, which have actually
invaded my house?both the crawlspace ($1,400 cleanup) and <gasp!> my
kitchen <shriek!>, despite having multiple dogs--for years.

The poison (CONTRAC) is supposed to have very low secondary impact on
any animal eating the killed rats. I have not had any trouble with
secondary poisoning with the dogs, but I am also vigilant in disposing
of dead rats.

I AM CONCERNED THAT RAPTORS MIGHT EAT THE DEAD RATS AND HAVE TROUBLE
LAYING VIABLE EGGS.

If I am poisoning the birds, I will stop the toxin part of my
extermination program and just use lots of snap traps.

Thanks so much.

-------------------------

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20100204/a2bff324/attachment.htm