3 ms·

While your main point is philosophical, you mentioned the practical concern of rats - for what it’s worth, Alberta, a Canadian province the size of France, has

by 542458 4y ago

While your main point is philosophical, you mentioned the practical concern of rats - for what it’s worth, Alberta, a Canadian province the size of France, has completely eradicated rats despite being land-bordered on all sides by provinces with rats. Alberta produces a lot of grain, and it’s a big savings for them to not have to deal with rats. This is accomplished with a provincial task force that costs about half a million bucks a year, aggressive reporting action by the population, and enthusiastic cooperation from the local farms. So it can be done, and it’s not nearly as hard as it sounds!

atlasunshrugged 4y ago
That's really interesting (I now live in an East Coast US city with a rat problem) -- do they have any good papers or anything on what tactics they used to eliminate the rats? 500K a year sounds like a bargain, I bet that's NYC's rat czar's basic salary
- 542458 4y ago
  Not an academic paper, but this is a good summary of the history: https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.aspx https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.asp... The wikipedia article is good too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat#Alberta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat#Alberta One big thing is that it is too cold in Alberta for most rats to survive. The only one that's very viable is the Norway rat, and even then it's too cold for them to live outside all year round - so if you can keep them out of structures you can eliminate them entirely. Once the initial kill-off was done (which was accomplished with ludicrous amounts of poison), it's mostly about protecting the provincial border. Here's a more academic rendition: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=vpc18 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1... People there take it seriously. One town formed a posse when they found an infestation and killed them with brooms and sticks: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/neighbourhood-posse-stomps-out-rats-in-alberta-1.474371 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/neighbourhood-posse-stomps-ou... Fun article about a Wikipedia revision war about the territory of the brown rat: https://crackmacs.ca/lifestyle/rats-in-alberta/ https://crackmacs.ca/lifestyle/rats-in-alberta/ That article is two years old. The revision war is ongoing today: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_rat_distribution.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_rat_distributi...

by 542458 4y ago

atlasunshrugged 4y ago

That's really interesting (I now live in an East Coast US city with a rat problem) -- do they have any good papers or anything on what tactics they used to eliminate the rats? 500K a year sounds like a bargain, I bet that's NYC's rat czar's basic salary

542458 4y ago
Not an academic paper, but this is a good summary of the history: https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.aspx https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.asp... The wikipedia article is good too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat#Alberta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat#Alberta One big thing is that it is too cold in Alberta for most rats to survive. The only one that's very viable is the Norway rat, and even then it's too cold for them to live outside all year round - so if you can keep them out of structures you can eliminate them entirely. Once the initial kill-off was done (which was accomplished with ludicrous amounts of poison), it's mostly about protecting the provincial border. Here's a more academic rendition: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=vpc18 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1... People there take it seriously. One town formed a posse when they found an infestation and killed them with brooms and sticks: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/neighbourhood-posse-stomps-out-rats-in-alberta-1.474371 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/neighbourhood-posse-stomps-ou... Fun article about a Wikipedia revision war about the territory of the brown rat: https://crackmacs.ca/lifestyle/rats-in-alberta/ https://crackmacs.ca/lifestyle/rats-in-alberta/ That article is two years old. The revision war is ongoing today: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_rat_distribution.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_rat_distributi...