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How Alberta Eradicated Rats

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Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#41

Post by rawgabbit »

ipdashc wrote: post #30
Hugsbox wrote: post #3

Every so often I'll mention online that Alberta has no rats, and inevitably there will be an American responding in absolute disbelief saying I'm full of shit. I may not live in Alberta, but luckily rats aren't really a thing in my neck of the woods. Travel an hour down the highway and it's a different story. Also, as an aside, people often don't believe me when I say I've never seen a cockroach before in my life. No…

> I've seen pictures of em, and I'm pretty sure if I saw one of those things irl I would absolutely shit myself. I always thought this was interesting (how many people are super scared of cockroaches). I'm absolutely terrified of bugs, I see cockroaches very rarely, and while I wouldn't pet one... They're not too bad? There's tons of bugs that are way scarier. Spiders, house centipedes, camel crickets. And that's jus…

Spiders are beneficial. Please don’t kill them. Cock roaches do spread disease. I buy Combat Source Kill Max Roach Insect Killer Gel with fipronil.

https://www.epa.gov/ipm/cockroaches-and-schools

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#42

Post by cogman10 »

Here in Boise Idaho, we are watching the local governments completely fail. We've not had rats here until somewhat recently. The State, County, and cities have all taken a "not our problem" attitude to it and instead of putting in any sort of pest management/eradication programs they've basically just said "good luck everyone".

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#43

Post by itintheory »

forlorn_mammoth wrote: post #33
stackedinserter wrote: post #20

So, even impossible things can be made possible if there's enough determination and political will.

eliminate malaria from the continental US. Check. eliminate smallpox. Check. eliminate measles. Own goal.

Another own goal - eliminate screw worm from north america...

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#45

Post by sidewndr46 »

Hugsbox wrote: post #3

Every so often I'll mention online that Alberta has no rats, and inevitably there will be an American responding in absolute disbelief saying I'm full of shit. I may not live in Alberta, but luckily rats aren't really a thing in my neck of the woods. Travel an hour down the highway and it's a different story. Also, as an aside, people often don't believe me when I say I've never seen a cockroach before in my life. No…

isn't it kind of moot? there are plenty of other rodents. They fill the gap left by rats. I'm not really sure eliminating all rodents would be a good idea for the ecosystem.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#46

Post by Hugsbox »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #45
Hugsbox wrote: post #3

Every so often I'll mention online that Alberta has no rats, and inevitably there will be an American responding in absolute disbelief saying I'm full of shit. I may not live in Alberta, but luckily rats aren't really a thing in my neck of the woods. Travel an hour down the highway and it's a different story. Also, as an aside, people often don't believe me when I say I've never seen a cockroach before in my life. No…

isn't it kind of moot? there are plenty of other rodents. They fill the gap left by rats. I'm not really sure eliminating all rodents would be a good idea for the ecosystem.

Rats are, to my knowledge, more destructive and spread more disease. Obviously eliminating all rodents would be disastrous for the ecosystem, but rats in particular are an invasive species in North America so eliminating them specifically doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#47

Post by mordechai9000 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #26
Hugsbox wrote: post #3

Every so often I'll mention online that Alberta has no rats, and inevitably there will be an American responding in absolute disbelief saying I'm full of shit. I may not live in Alberta, but luckily rats aren't really a thing in my neck of the woods. Travel an hour down the highway and it's a different story. Also, as an aside, people often don't believe me when I say I've never seen a cockroach before in my life. No…

I live in a wooded, fairly rural area and I see cockroaches outside, under leaves, fallen branches, etc. but they don't really come into the house.

Depending on where you live, those probably aren't the problematic species known as the German cockroach that typically infests human living quarters.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#48

Post by ipdashc »

rawgabbit wrote: post #41
ipdashc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've seen pictures of em, and I'm pretty sure if I saw one of those things irl I would absolutely shit myself. I always thought this was interesting (how many people are super scared of cockroaches). I'm absolutely terrified of bugs, I see cockroaches very rarely, and while I wouldn't pet one... They're not too bad? There's tons of bugs that are way scarier. Spiders, house centipedes, camel crickets. And that's jus…

Spiders are beneficial. Please don’t kill them. Cock roaches do spread disease. I buy Combat Source Kill Max Roach Insect Killer Gel with fipronil. https://www.epa.gov/ipm/cockroaches-and-schools

I'm aware, I don't kill spiders if I can avoid it. And I know cockroaches are nastier. I just think it's surprising that people are so visually afraid of them, since they're not a very scary-looking bug.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#49

Post by cmrdporcupine »

mig39 wrote: post #16

I live in Alberta. No rats here. Also the ticks here don't spread Lyme disease.

> the ticks here don't spread Lyme disease.

this is out of date information unfortunately. With warming climate, the black-legged tick has spread into Alberta and samples have been found with the Lyme disease bacterium.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/tick-lyme-diseas...

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