Rat poison: time to think again

Just as the use of insecticides does not solve a mosquito problem, vermin are not controlled by repeated use of poisons.

Rat poison lodged in letter-box. Rat poison lodged in letter-box. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

For many years, rat poison has been delivered to households all over the island in totally inadequate cellophane bags. To make matters worse, the instructions are inside, so the poison has to be handled if you want to read them. Foreign residents who do not know Croatian are at a disadvantage. One thought that the white tablet which comes with the red warfarin mixture was the antidote. Luckily, they had no occasion to try it, as the tablet is a separate poison meant for septic tanks, and has no antidote. The antidote to the warfarin is vitamin K. Warnings that the poison is about to be delivered are patchy and haphazard. While the official Stari Grad website always carries advance notice, that has not been the case elsewhere. In Pitve it was usually a small notice taped to the rubbish bin a day or two beforehand. However, during 2016 there has been an improvement in Jelsa, with warnings being given on the Council's website as well as on the Town Hall notice board.

Warning of the impending poison delivery on the rubbish bin. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

By law, vitamins have to be packaged securely, but it seems that rat poison does not. EU membership has not changed this irresponsible and dangerous custom. The bags are left apparently randomly around the villages. I have found them variously on a window sill, dangling from my post-box, even on top of my car! Delivery is clearly irresponsible. Are the poisons used in a more responsible manner? All too often, they are simply placed in heaps around a property, even where they may be a hazard to pets or young children. The safest way to put down such poisons - if you feel you must - is to use a rigid tube with access holes at either end large enough for mice or rats, but too small for other animals.

Packaged rat poison as delivered to local households. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

While vermin within buildings present a problem and possible health hazard, the same is not true of mice and rats in the wild, which have their place, not least in the natural food chain. For an insight into their lifestyles, see the video below, or click here.

Given regular doses of poison, rats become resistant, so poison is not the solution. On the other hand, although the poison is not supposed to attract other animals, it does, and cats and dogs have died through eating it. The more's the pity, as cats keep rats, mice and even snakes under control. For any major rat infestation, the best methods for avoiding the problem of resistance are to let tenacious dogs like Jack Russell terriers hunt them, or to use traps.

Rat poison delivered to a car roof. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

The local councils must spend quite a significant sum of money on distributing these poisons. Looking at the 2015 financial report from Jelsa Council, I was unable to identify exactly how much was spent on the campaigns against vermin and insects, as these items were not identified individually. Is this money being spent wisely? I think not.

In the United Kingdom, poisons against vermin are available, but are not generally distributed by local councils. They were (and maybe still are) distributed on request. Some sixty years ago, when we lived not far from London, my brother, sister and I came home from school to find an unmarked jam jar on the kitchen table. Ever adventurous, my sister delved in. “Cheesy“, she purred, and continued to satisfy her hunger. There was no fridge full of food in those days, indeed no fridge, and the larder was empty. However, Brother and I were more cautious, and refused her kind offer to share. Our mother's horror when she came home from work sometime later and asked where the rat poison was can be imagined. Sister spent the night in hospital, where diligent stomach pumping saved her life. I think that was the last time the local council left unmarked rat poison in anyone's home in an innocent-looking, insecure jam jar.

No safeguards regarding handling and storage. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

On Hvar in recent years I have managed to stop the deliveries by putting up notices round my property saying 'Otrov ne hvala' ('Poison, no thanks'), a tactic I recommend to anyone who does not want to be burdened with handling or storing hazardous substances.

My warning notice: No poisons!

Uncontrolled poison distribution is obviously hazardous. Coupled with the fact that poison is not an efficient method of controlling pests, the current policy needs to be reviewed, and practices need to be substantially improved - as a matter of extreme urgency.

© Vivian Grisogono 2016

Media

Small mammals in Wytham Woods University of Oxford
You are here: Home highlights Poisons Beware Rat poison: time to think again

Eco Environment News feeds

  • More than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme finds

    Last summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.

    For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline.

    Continue reading...

  • New Zealand’s docile, solitary and elusive ‘god of ugly things’ does wonders for the forest-floor ecosystem

    Are you sick of throwing yourself on the altar of unrealistic beauty standards? Do you long to celebrate the delightfully monstrous, to give the spiny stuff of shadows their day in the sun? Then consider the mighty wētāpunga – an endemic New Zealand insect so revered for its unconventional beauty its name means “god of ugly things”.

    This forest behemoth is thought to be the heaviest adult insect in the world, with a female weighing as much as a mouse or a sparrow. Its body can grow up to 10cm long (nearly 4in) and its leg span can be as wide as 20cm. Once found across parts of the North Island, the vulnerable wētāpunga – the largest of 70 wētā species – now resides entirely on a smattering of predator-free islands near Auckland.

    Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April, and the winner will be announced on Monday 7 April.

    Continue reading...

  • Government wants to spur economic growth and drive housebuilding but charities say nature should be priority

    Wildlife groups have expressed alarm after ministers promised a radically “streamlined” approach to UK environmental regulation intended to drive economic growth and speed up new housing, as well as major projects such as airports.

    While officials said the plans should boost nature conservation overall, the removal of what one called “bat by bat” decisions, a reference to the £100m bat shelter constructed for part of HS2, could water down individual protections.

    Continue reading...

  • Scientists say they are ingesting more microplastics in Mediterranean as the plankton they feed on struggle to survive in warming waters

    As the Latin name suggests, Sardina pilchardus can be called a sardine or a pilchard when it is tinned or offered on a fishmonger’s slab. One common definition is that if it is longer than 15cm it is called a pilchard and if smaller, a sardine.

    However, when pilchards fell out of favour with consumers, 15cm pilchards were rebranded as Cornish sardines and sales picked up again. To add to the confusion, other small silver fish are often passed off as sardines.

    Continue reading...

  • Inkpen, Berkshire: All is accented by a bleached-out leaching of colour – before the green fuse of spring ignites and rushes through everything

    Just before the land turns green in the chalky downlands, it goes as pale as it gets. As the earth warms and dries, the seed-drilled arable fields look as if they are spread with fresh breadcrumbs. The ruts harden and the rain-dark mud down the centre and the sides of the lanes greys and lightens to a crumbly, scuffable chalk dust that drifts in eddies and whitens everything further.

    The pasture has a thatch of winter-weathered grass, and its split-wood colour is taken up by the raffia ribbons of spent bryony laced through the hedges, and the needle-fine forest of cleaver stems reaching up from the bottom. All is accented by a bleached-out leaching of colour before the green fuse of spring ignites and rushes through everything. It’s time to harrow and roll.

    Continue reading...

  • Full of clovers and dandelions, with a hard-wearing rye grass, the approach is environmentally friendly and usable

    Is there a perfect formula for a hard-wearing flower lawn that is good for pollinators, dogs and people?

    The immaculately mown green has fallen out of favour in recent years owing to its lack of support for biodiversity. But there have also been complaints about the tall wildflower meadows that grow during “no mow May” and are less usable for humans and pets.

    Continue reading...

  • A 19th-century zoologist found the ‘little salt dweller’, which could be a portal to the past – if only we could locate it again

    Last February, with colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, I made the long journey to an unremarkable city called Río Cuarto, east of the Argentinian Andes. We went in search of a worm of unusual distinction.

    Why a worm? As humans, we naturally love the animals that are most familiar. But from a zoologist’s point of view, the vertebrates, from mammals and birds to frogs and fish, can be seen as variations on a single theme. We all have a head at one end (with skull, eyes and jaws); in the middle, a couple of pairs of limbs (a goldfish’s fins, or your arms and legs); and, holding all this together, a backbone ending in a tail.

    Continue reading...

  • Locals are feeling the impact of the more than 17,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish in the city’s streets

    “I’m afraid to open my front door, they’re everywhere,” said Mary Dore, eyeing the ground outside her house in Balsall Heath suspiciously. “They run out from under the cars when you get in, they’re going in the engines. They chewed through the cables in my son’s car, costing him god knows how much.

    “There’s one street I can’t walk my dog because they come running out of the grass and the piles of rubbish. One time I screamed.”

    Continue reading...

  • Northern Ontario is seeing a ‘shorter window’ for ice roads that deliver vital supplies to remote First Nations

    At first there was no answer on the satellite phone. But on the third call, Donald Meeseetawageesic heard his sister’s voice. “We need somebody to come and tow us out,” he told her.

    It was a warmer-than-normal night in early March and Meeseetawageesic, the elected band councillor for Eabametoong First Nation, was stranded in a 4x4 truck on the dark winter road leading to his community. The tyres were stuck in the deep snow and the temperature outside was below freezing. Help was about 60km (37 miles) away.

    Continue reading...

  • These creatures evolved over millenia to create nature’s finest circular economy, but are now struggling to survive

    There’s no preparing for a first encounter with a thriving coral reef: your attention ricochets between dramas of colour, form and movement. A blaze of fire coral, darting clown fish, crimson sponge, electric blue ray … a turtle! Your heart soars, your head spins. Nowhere else will you encounter such density and diversity of life.

    Corals are the architects of all this splendour. Their immobile forms suggest plants, but they’re animals – solar-powered ones. Each is a colony of thousands, sometimes millions, of tiny coral polyps, each resembling a slimmed-down sea anemone, just millimetres tall.

    Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April, and the winner will be announced on Monday 7 April.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds