rat control without poison

[jadelennox]

Content note: Animal harm to a bald eagle, implied to rats.

From Universal Hub: Local bald eagle dies of rat poison.

I know the rat problem is out of control, and there's only so much an individual can do with traps and good trash management when we live in a city. But the poison is killing the raptors which, traditionally, control the rats. For what it's worth I've been trying Contrapest rat contraceptives; I don't know yet whether it works well enough. (Also dry ice, which you can buy in pellets at Acme down Kirkland and Beacon, near Inman, poured into the tunnels if you know the entrances, seems to help as well.)

Comments

[squirrelitude]

A few months ago, elusiveat asked me: "Why are rats even a problem?" And as far as I can tell from what people complain about, they're *mostly* a problem because they chew into trash bins looking for food. And then the food feeds them, and then there are more rats, which chew more trash bins. (And if you're a homeowner, you might get fined.)

But... if you compost your food waste, you don't support the rat population and the rats don't damage the bins. It solves both sides of the problem at once. (Instead they try to chew your compost bin, but for some reason I hear this doesn't seem to be a big issue with the curbside composters.)

For completeness, the other concerns I've heard:

- Rats sometimes chew car wiring (as do squirrels)
- They can spread disease (I'm not clear on how)
- People just don't like seeing them?

So there are still reasons to not just like... have open piles of compost, like we do in the country. But honestly, the city just needs to implement municipal composting. It takes away the food source and that is *far* more effective than trapping and killing.

(But yes, if you find a rat nest, you can put a few pounds of dry ice over the entrance and then pile dirt on top -- it should kill any animals in there, with no residual toxins.)