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The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

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Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#11

Post by hamstergene »

Syonyk wrote: post #2

Ew. Not surprised you can buy the stuff that professionals shy away from for being too damned toxic, to your door, overnight delivery. Plus good reviews, hard to leave a bad review for it when you're bleeding out in the ER. I don't use poisons for pest control. We have too many owls, hawks, and the occasional eagle overhead. I'll kill stuff mechanically (damned pocket gophers...) and toss the carcass out where someth…

Good reviews also barely mean anything these days. The worst item I have ever bought online, which damaged itself on opening for 100% of buyers, had ~4.1 rating. At this point, it is fair to say getting less than 4 stars means the seller was too poor/naive to hire "online promotion" services or whatever they are called, rather than anything else.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#12

Post by sueders101 »

seabird wrote: post #5
s5300 wrote: post #4

We (younger than 30ish) are in for some crazy times IMO You can order parts to reliably make guns fully automatic straight to your door, thousands of rounds of ammunition for a weeks worth of minimum wage work straight to your door, poisons such as what this article refers to straight to your door… gun suppressors straight to your door… I just think were going to see a ton of people in the US snapping and doing crazy…

You can order parts to make your gun fully automatic straight to your door without filling out a Form 4 if you want to commit a federal crime that the ATF likely will follow up on. You can order suppressors straight to your door without filling out a Form 4 if you want to commit a federal crime that the ATF likely will follow up on. You can _not_ buy thousands of rounds worth of any ammo other than .22 with a week's…

"You can _not_ buy thousands of rounds worth of any ammo other than .22 with a week's worth of minimum wage pay (if you know something that I don't, let me know where you're finding these deals)."

It's pretty close. Ammoseek shows 9mm starting at ~$0.30 per round, and most other popular pistol calibers starting at ~$0.40 to ~$0.45 per round. And it's easy to find better deals if you're checking the r/gundeals subreddit periodically. That puts 2000 rounds of 9mm at around the gross income weekly income for someone earning $15/hour.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#13

Post by s5300 »

seabird wrote: post #5
s5300 wrote: post #4

We (younger than 30ish) are in for some crazy times IMO You can order parts to reliably make guns fully automatic straight to your door, thousands of rounds of ammunition for a weeks worth of minimum wage work straight to your door, poisons such as what this article refers to straight to your door… gun suppressors straight to your door… I just think were going to see a ton of people in the US snapping and doing crazy…

You can order parts to make your gun fully automatic straight to your door without filling out a Form 4 if you want to commit a federal crime that the ATF likely will follow up on. You can order suppressors straight to your door without filling out a Form 4 if you want to commit a federal crime that the ATF likely will follow up on. You can _not_ buy thousands of rounds worth of any ammo other than .22 with a week's…

You’re correct on the vast majority of people aren’t violent and unreasonable part… but I very much think you’re missing a point.

Yes, you could mostly always buy something like a part to make a gun fully automatic or a suppressor online. Anybody with the slightest technical skills could make the full auto parts with some metal stock & a dremel. But a lot of people aren’t thinking into it that much when they’re impulsive.

But in the year 2000, you would have to put a bit of effort into finding these things online, and if you were underage it would have been much harder to instantly/easily purchase.

Now wish.com and everything else exist - you can find the parts in seconds, and you have a plethora of ways to easily purchase them underage & shipped to your door in two days.

Yes, the vast majority of these are ATF/Fed or whatever else honeypots… but sometimes that doesn’t really matter if you already have a plan & are ready the day your parts come in.

1000 rounds of 7.62x39 is ~$350. Do minimum wage workers not take in ~$350 weekly anymore?

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#14

Post by WalterBright »

I use the old-fashioned snap traps. They work fine. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak the catch to make it more sensitive. They're made of wood and wire, and aren't an environmental problem.

I live near a greenbelt and there's a never-ending invasion of mice. If I leave the garage door open and unattended, they're in in a flash and setting up shop. The only way to get rid of them is the traps, and you have to get rid of them.

Peanut butter bait is irresistible. I used to use gloves to bait them cuz the books say they mice are deterred by human smell. They aren't. They aren't deterred by The Cat, either, as they know The Cat prefers human flesh. They're not very smart, either, as if you put two traps adjacent, they'll crawl over the body of their buddy dead in the first one and get caught by the second.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#15

Post by gameman144 »

ars wrote: post #9

As someone who needed some rodenticide, what is actually needed is not restriction on these poisons, but rather very authoritative sites with advice on the best stuff to get, that is actually safe and effective. It's surprisingly hard to research what poisons are actually good to use, you'll either gets sites shilling stuff that completely doesn't work, but is "eco friendly" (for example "Rat-X"), and sites that simp…

Eh, I'm not sure I agree. I think the natural tendency for people is to think "My case is different, I need the strongest tool for this job!". People stock their medicine cabinets with Extra Strength Tylenol instead of regular, or buy anti-bacterial soap instead of normal soap, because it's easier to go straight for the big guns.

Even in these small cases the information is tremendously easy to find and people don't look for it and/or care about it. The consequences of the wrong Tylenol or anti-bacterial soap are small comparatively, but when the consequences of bad choices get in the way of ecological conservation for no good reason, it seems like that's prime territory for regulation.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#16

Post by WalterBright »

ars wrote: post #9

As someone who needed some rodenticide, what is actually needed is not restriction on these poisons, but rather very authoritative sites with advice on the best stuff to get, that is actually safe and effective. It's surprisingly hard to research what poisons are actually good to use, you'll either gets sites shilling stuff that completely doesn't work, but is "eco friendly" (for example "Rat-X"), and sites that simp…

Get the old wood-and-wire snap traps. The design is centuries old, and they work. They make them rat-size, too.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#17

Post by sdenton4 »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #3

What's surprising is why people would buy this over the more obvious search result 'Rat Poison'. Perhaps Amazon has already adjusted the search results but the top results for 'rat poison' were Cholecalciferol and Bromethalin based products. Does Brodifacoum work the best? What's driving consumers to search for a specific type of poison. > Things haven’t quite worked out as the EPA envisioned. When I first started br…

One can easily imagine the thoughts of the uninformed internet researcher: "Well, when I shopped around, these 12 gallon buckets we're the minimum size, so I guess you need to use a lot of it..."

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#18

Post by geuis »

Ok this is insane.

A couple days ago I was trying to purchase some new inexpensive but highly reviewed smoke detectors for my apartment. However I ran into an issue that due to some California law, they can’t be delivered because they have to be “10 year” units. The 10-year units are 2-3x the price.

On a whim just a couple minutes ago, I did the same search the author did in the article for “bromethalin” on Amazon. Lots of products showed up. I picked the one that had next day Prime delivery for San Francisco. At this step I just left it in my cart.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005BV0DD2?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_...

I read a bit further into the article where he talks about California it’s banned. To double check that, I went ahead and completed the order. Went through just fine. Confirmed delivery by tomorrow, 12/12/2021.

Then I had a momentary minor freak out and cancelled the order asap.

So yeah OP has an entirely valid point and it’s incredibly easy to buy this stuff. I even went with Amazon’s recommendation and got free shipping.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#19

Post by 7952 »

hamstergene wrote: post #11
Syonyk wrote: post #2

Ew. Not surprised you can buy the stuff that professionals shy away from for being too damned toxic, to your door, overnight delivery. Plus good reviews, hard to leave a bad review for it when you're bleeding out in the ER. I don't use poisons for pest control. We have too many owls, hawks, and the occasional eagle overhead. I'll kill stuff mechanically (damned pocket gophers...) and toss the carcass out where someth…

Good reviews also barely mean anything these days. The worst item I have ever bought online, which damaged itself on opening for 100% of buyers, had ~4.1 rating. At this point, it is fair to say getting less than 4 stars means the seller was too poor/naive to hire "online promotion" services or whatever they are called, rather than anything else.

Redordering reviews by date helps a lot.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#20

Post by netcan »

WalterBright wrote: post #14

I use the old-fashioned snap traps. They work fine. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak the catch to make it more sensitive. They're made of wood and wire, and aren't an environmental problem. I live near a greenbelt and there's a never-ending invasion of mice. If I leave the garage door open and unattended, they're in in a flash and setting up shop. The only way to get rid of them is the traps, and you have to get rid…

Rats tend to be more clever, and harder to trap than mice
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