Department of Fish and Game officials are advising the public to use caution when using poison baits -- or rodenticides -- to control rodent pests.
Careless use of rodenticides has injured and killed wildlife and pets throughout the state, while targeting an explosion of voles -- the outdoor rodents, which are similar in appearance to house mice, with short tails and smaller ears, the officials emphasized. The voles build and use grass "tunnels."
However, some rodenticides pose dangers, particularly through secondary poisoning that occurs when scavenging species victimized by rodenticides.
Owls, hawks, other scavenging birds and predators such as raccoons, fox, skunk and coyote are at risk.
Pets will also eat dead or dying rodents and unprotected bait. Deer may be attracted to the pellet forms of rodenticides.
Over-the-counter rodenticides - including many commonly known brands - that contain the active ingredients brodifacoum, bromadiolone or difethialone can only be legally used to control rodents in and around structures.
It is not legal to use these products in open areas such as pastures or fields, the DFG officials stressed.
Bait products that contain the ingredients chlorophacinone or diphacinone can be used legally to control outdoor rodent pests such as voles, ground squirrels and gophers. These compounds require multiple feedings to kill rodent pests, so they pose a lower secondary poisoning risk compared to rodenticides used to control mice and rats within homes, barns or other structures.
It is important to read rodenticide product labels carefully and to strictly follow all use directions.
Rodenticides should only be used in small treatment areas close to structures.
Be sure to check these areas daily for dead rodents. Collect the carcasses as soon as possible, place in plastic bags and dispose in garbage cans with tight lids that other animals can't open.
Always wear protective gloves when handling any dead animal.
Since 1994, DFG's Pesticide Investigations Unit has confirmed at least 136 cases of wildlife poisoning from anticoagulant rodenticides.
More information on protecting wildlife and pets from rodenticide baits is on the DFG website at www.dfg.ca.gov/education/rodenticide.
More information on voles and alternatives to poison can be found on the University of California, Davis Integrated Pest Management Program website at www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html.
Careless use of rodenticides has injured and killed wildlife and pets throughout the state, while targeting an explosion of voles -- the outdoor rodents, which are similar in appearance to house mice, with short tails and smaller ears, the officials emphasized. The voles build and use grass "tunnels."
However, some rodenticides pose dangers, particularly through secondary poisoning that occurs when scavenging species victimized by rodenticides.
Owls, hawks, other scavenging birds and predators such as raccoons, fox, skunk and coyote are at risk.
Pets will also eat dead or dying rodents and unprotected bait. Deer may be attracted to the pellet forms of rodenticides.
Over-the-counter rodenticides - including many commonly known brands - that contain the active ingredients brodifacoum, bromadiolone or difethialone can only be legally used to control rodents in and around structures.
It is not legal to use these products in open areas such as pastures or fields, the DFG officials stressed.
Bait products that contain the ingredients chlorophacinone or diphacinone can be used legally to control outdoor rodent pests such as voles, ground squirrels and gophers. These compounds require multiple feedings to kill rodent pests, so they pose a lower secondary poisoning risk compared to rodenticides used to control mice and rats within homes, barns or other structures.
It is important to read rodenticide product labels carefully and to strictly follow all use directions.
Rodenticides should only be used in small treatment areas close to structures.
Be sure to check these areas daily for dead rodents. Collect the carcasses as soon as possible, place in plastic bags and dispose in garbage cans with tight lids that other animals can't open.
Always wear protective gloves when handling any dead animal.
Since 1994, DFG's Pesticide Investigations Unit has confirmed at least 136 cases of wildlife poisoning from anticoagulant rodenticides.
More information on protecting wildlife and pets from rodenticide baits is on the DFG website at www.dfg.ca.gov/education/rodenticide.
More information on voles and alternatives to poison can be found on the University of California, Davis Integrated Pest Management Program website at www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html.
Joe Segura, a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, has covered Gotham City, er Long Beach, for 34 years. During his very, very long -- endless -- tenure, he's covered almost every beat, and he was the main writer for BeachWeek, which focused on life and lifestyles of the shoreline communities from downtown Long Beach to the Huntington Beach pier.
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