On Jan 21, 2011, at 12:22 PM, Abby Larson wrote:

> Haven't heard about this in a little while. From the Christian Science Monitor:
> http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0120/Bye-Bye-Blackbird-USDA-acknowledges-a-hand-in-one-mass-bird-death
> Abby Larson
> Seattle

DRC-1339 or Starlicide has been used since 1967. It is a slow acting avicide for the control of wide range of birds including icterids, sturdids, corvids, larids, columbids (and others).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlicide

It's said to be "species specific" (i.e. it doesn't affect gallinaceous birds, house sparrows, or predators like hawks or mammals). Clearly the "species specificity" doesn't seem to be true as it can kill a wide range of passerines (so that's order specific, at best). It all depends what bird eats the bait and how sensitive they are to DRC-1339.

As the wikipedia article says it takes 1 to 3 days to kill the birds (so they don't get scared off from eating the bait with the added bonus of no clean up: "Hey, there are no dead birds around our feedlot!"). The problem is the dead birds appear as a die off in the surrounding region. And people notice and wonder if it was disease or poisoning.

Curiously even though this is a "restricted" pesticide (though if you have a good reason you can get it) there is no federal reporting on these culls though some states have reporting annual reporting rules for pesticide use.

This lack of reporting would appear to be the biggest problem with the use of DRC-1339 given potential impacts on endangered species.

Lack of transparency as these "die-offs" show is not a good idea.
--
Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
http://kevinpurcell.posterous.com
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