Join Save St. Pete Wildlife in Making a Difference

You could be if you (or one of your neighbors) are using one of the below listed “high risk” rodenticides aka “rat poisons”.  Read on…

• According to the EPA, more than 100 pets each year in the U.S. are reported to have died from accidental rodenticide poisoning.
• In a recent study, 77% of the dead raptors found in and around New York City Parks tested positive for rodenticide poisoning, including Flaco the Eurasian Eagle owl that had escaped from Central Park Zoo.
• From 2017 to 2021, there were 40,808 total human exposure cases to rodenticides reported to America’s Poison Centers, with over 70% being children under the age of 5.

Rodenticides (aka “rat poison”) are mainly toxins used to control the population of rodents.  They are often used in bait stations, but the rodents do not die inside the stations.  After eating the bait, rats and mice go back into the environment and can take more than a week to die.  During that time, they may return to the bait station and ingest many more times the lethal dose.  If they have been poisoned by a “high risk” form of rodenticide, the rodents are a toxic ticking time bomb for any animal who preys on them.

No.  Some affect the target animal, usually a rat or mouse, with little to no risk of Secondary Poisoning to wildlife or pets.  Others, not so.  Secondary Poisoning occurs when the poison remains active, even after the target animal has ingested a lethal dose or even died, potentially poisoning anything that consumes the target animal.  Please consult the below Comparison Matrix to evaluate the risks to pets, wildlife and family…after all, if there is an accidental direct poisoning of a family member, having an antidote should also be considered.

Yes.  Integrated pest management (“IPM”) techniques are considered to be highly effective.  IPM focuses on multiple environmentally friendly methods to control rodent populations.  Methods include: Sanitation (ie. remove fallen fruit from trees and seed on ground below bird feeder, remove trash and store appropriately until pick up day, eliminate water sources), Exclusion (ie. Sealing entry points to home.  Use steel wool and expanding foam.  Rodents cannot dig though.  A UV light helps find entry points as rodents leave a trail of urine that fluoresces under UV.), Mechanical Controls (use live traps, snap traps…but inside only…avoid glue traps as they can kill helpful critters like wolf spiders and geckos.).  Finally, use rodenticides as a last resort and only after researching the type and its RISKS.

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