The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem • Hacker News Board

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#71

Post by hunter-gatherer » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:13 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #64

pvaldes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a big enough garden, you could put an owl nest box in a calm place when the owlets constant screeching noise will not suppose a problem. Owls can be territorial and attack to protect the nest also, so leave them far from the house and alone. Unlike traps, they will catch ten mice by night each night and will dispose of the corpses so you don't need to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-KWBSbis4

If you're lucky enough to have one move in. I have a bat house in hopes of natural mosquito control. It's been a few years and there's no sign of use.

Bats are amazing neighbors. For years our neighboor had a massive pine tree that was hone to a pretty significant bat population. We would always see them come out at night and start feeding. Mosquitoes were never an issue. A few years ago the tree had to be cut down because it was rotting inside and was at danger of falling down. Unfortunately the bats haven't returned, and everyone in my neighborhood is now fighting the mosquito.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#72

Post by istinetz » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

foxhop wrote: post #42

I moonlight as a YouTuber showing how to GROW food on 1/3 acre. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ZIumjXukI The answer is snap traps not poison. Fight when the LAW of NATURE is violated, alarm systems all over the Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious UNIVERSE. Stop the CIRCULAR destruction of NATURE. The ONE verse of the UNIVERSE is a Trivium, Inputs > Process > Outputs Let's only put GOOD in the world.

Wot

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#73

Post by tartoran » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

praptak wrote: post #37

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…

For a Cat to work on mice it has to be a Mouser. I can't pretend I know the full theory of Mousers but it seems that females brought up by Mouser mothers in a mouse-rich environment are the best Mousers, since they are taught to kill from their earliest years.

True, some cats couldn’t care less about mice. I had an outdoor cat that was into pigeons which I didn’t have a problem with. At the same time the dog we had was a natural mouser. She got the problem under control.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#74

Post by tartoran » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

Amezarak wrote: post #44

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…

I sometimes get mice in the house, and found snap traps to be totally ineffective. They worked at first, but when I had more than one mouse in the house, they seemed to learn to avoid them and even how to eat the bait without setting off the mechanism. The most generally effective trap I have found is glue traps. They are an awful device but very effective. Unfortunately, you have to kill the trapped mice yourself. T…

I find glue traps as inhumane, the mice get trapped and they die an agonizing slow death. Once trapped they cannot be detached from the glue bed without their skin being ripped off their bodies.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#75

Post by cainxinth » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

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…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_a_better_mousetrap,_and_...

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#76

Post by ramphastidae » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #53

skissane wrote: post #45

Brodifacoum? I don’t buy that on Amazon, I buy it at my local supermarket. Not the US, Australia. I’ve never heard any controversy about availability of brodifacoum in Australia (maybe some environmental or animal welfare group has complained, but if so I haven’t heard about it) Glue traps, now that’s controversial. In the state of Victoria, illegal to use in residential settings (on animal welfare grounds), but stil…

What’s so bad about a glue trap that it weighs up against massive internal hemorrhaging over the course of 5 days?

Because instead it’s death by starvation over 3 days. And often the rats will tear off their own limbs in an attempt to escape from the glue.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#77

Post by MereInterest » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

nefitty wrote: post #68

alpaca128 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has the same energy as that "you wouldn't steal a car" ad in IT Crowd. But it's not far from the truth, and unless 10 news websites report on it online platforms won't even bother with an empty statement. Amazon for example lets vendors transfer good reviews to any other product by just replacing the product entry (name, description, price). Sure you then have reviews for coffee cups under some solder wire, but…

I think it's also review shyness. My wife yelled at me once (like real, oh shit I'm in trouble, yell) for leaving a 1 star review for an Uber driver who sped the whole way and ran a red light.

That's caused by excessive metric tracking on the part of companies, and passing the blame down to individual employees. When a 5-star rating is the default and anything else is a push for the person to be fired, of course people won't leave negative reviews, that's going to prevent people from leaving accurate reviews.

If I could trust reviews to be used in good faith (e.g. by paying employees a living wage and not implicitly requiring dangerous behavior to meet quotas), then I could leave more accurate reviews.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#78

Post by forgotmyoldname » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

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…

You’d be surprised how many people don’t care what’s recommended for their needs, because they just want the strongest stuff imaginable. Particularly when they’re pissed off at pests.

There’s a good number of people who’d happily buy flying murder robots to blow rats up with missiles if they were readily available and affordable.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#79

Post by sandworm101 » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

tomxor wrote: post #56

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…

I wonder if there is a more sustainable way of dissuading rodents from ever entering a building. I once had a terrible ant problem, they would always find their way into the kitchen. I tried a variety of products either intended to kill off the actual ant nests directly or trap the invaders, but there was always some quantity of ants remaining that would persist. Then I tried one product that was to simply be sprayed…

Salt. Ants taste with receptors on thier feet. Walking on salt is painful to them. Smear some salty water and let it dry. No ant scout will ever cross the line. Ive used that trick countless times to keep ants off of counters or from crossing open doors in summer.

Re: The Internet Has a Rat Poison Problem

#80

Post by kumarsw » Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 1:54 PM UTC

One thing that the article didn't mention is that second generation rodenticides are actually not especially dangerous to pets assuming that the owners are aware of the symptoms (usually lethargy and discolored lips). For warfarin the LD50 for cats is actually quite high - quite surprising for an animal that is vulnerable to kidney damage - and the treatment is a series of vitamin K injections. So good news for pet owners with crazy neighbors.

None of this is helpful for wild predators of course, and rodenticides are more likely to be used in rural areas where both rodents and their predators are present.