4 ms·
And they must be confident the scavengers won't eat the poisoned rats? Or that it is worth the trade off?
by rrauenza 8y ago
And they must be confident the scavengers won't eat the poisoned rats? Or that it is worth the trade off?
- bayesian_horse 8y agoThere are often problems with cats and dogs eating poisoned rodents. This can be a serious emergency, but it develops rather slowly at first, and is often treated with blood transfusions, Vitamin K and lots of patience. One way to lessen this effect would be to use doses so low that the rats will die but which would be diluted and metabolized by the time the animal actually dies. The most popular rat poisons involve some sort of anti-clotting agent, to ensure a high mortality while keeping the animal alive long enough not to discourage other rats from eating the bait. Overall the idea is probably to kill a higher percentage of the rats than of all the other species. I believe (but I don't know for certain) that invertebrate scavengers may be immune to those poisons.