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How Alberta Eradicated Rats

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101–110 of 146 posts

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#101
post #97
post #16

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

Maybe I’m just lucky but I’ve lived in Ontario (in cities and the country) and have never seen a rat here. I know they exist but it’s not like we’re inundated by them. Maybe some specific businesses have problems with them, but it’s not something you see every day. I also lived in Montreal and did see them there sometimes. This was always early morning when I was out running - did not see them in Toronto, Ottawa, etc…

I live in Ottawa and I watched a crow rip a dead brown rat apart in my front street this week. I don’t see them often but they’re here. (I swear I live in a nice neighbourhood)

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#102
post #16

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

I care about the Lyme more than the rats tbh. That is way more likely to fuck you up long term than anything a rat will bring in this day and age. We aren’t getting the black plague anymore.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#103
post #93

A correction: "One mayor refused to cooperate because he thought the program was a distraction cooked up by the ruling United Conservative Party." The UCP was established in 2017 and has no relation to the Social Credit Party that controlled Alberta's legislature during the time period being spoken of.

Saying "no relation" is almost stretching it a bit. I kinda give hats off to someone for the slipup. It's not the same legal entity but there's a continuous ideological (and even personal) connection going all the way back.

The way I see it ... Peter Lougheed through Getty and (arguably Stelmach era) was a bit of a brief interruption. His urban, pragmatic PCs pushed the older rural, evangelical Socreds out of power in the 70s.. but that populist movement just went briefly into a (vaguely) outsider status, organized through Alberta Report, etc got into Klein's cabinet, found a national voice in Preston Manning's Reform Party, and returned provincially via the Wildrose Party, and finally triumphally recaptured the province under the banner of the UCP

So not legally the same part, but frankly just really the same minus all the weird fixation on currencies, banks, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (... so far!)

All of this off topic from rats. (Maybe?)

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#104

Lots of rodents in Alberta. The neighbourhood cats keep the mice and hantavirus down. Aircraft are often infested with mice. We need more bullsnakes.

> The neighbourhood cats keep the mice and hantavirus down. Aircraft are often infested with mice They aren't doing a good job of keeping them "down" if they're on planes.

Airports have tons of food (grass environment + human garbage), tons of mouse habitat (grassy areas, outbuildings, machinery), and not many cats.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#105
post #97
post #16

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

Maybe I’m just lucky but I’ve lived in Ontario (in cities and the country) and have never seen a rat here. I know they exist but it’s not like we’re inundated by them. Maybe some specific businesses have problems with them, but it’s not something you see every day. I also lived in Montreal and did see them there sometimes. This was always early morning when I was out running - did not see them in Toronto, Ottawa, etc…

You sure see them everyday in Metro Vancouver

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dose makes the poison. Warfarin is prescribed as a blood thinner for humans.

Poor guy, must of had so many complications

Warfarin is reversible with vitamin k. I suppose he was also getting a low dose per unit of body mass.

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#108
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is they've grown accustomed to urban environments, are way more fearless than they used to be. I live rural (Ontario) and we hear but never see them. But if you go into town, they're a frequent occurrence. Grabbing people's pets and stuff. If it was just foxes... fine. But coyotes can be a problem.

Good. Outdoor cats are a bigger problem than a few native coyotes.

don't get me wrong, i'm on team coyote and i keep my cat indoors. i like to listen to them yip at night around here when they've cornered a rabbit or something

but i've seen stories/footage of people's dogs-on-leashes getting attacked and that's a bit scary

Re: How Alberta Eradicated Rats

#110

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

Is it your position that private pest control could not achieve the same or better result for at most the same cost?

Are you an economic calculation problem denier?

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