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History of rat control in Alberta
- radlad 2y agoI learned about this from the excellent show Joe Pera Talks With You. Season 1, Episode 8: Joe Pera Talks To You About The Rat Wars of Alberta, Canada (1950 - Present Day) Highly recommend it!
- fipar 2y agoThanks for the recommendation! In my case, I learned about the existence of the rat wars of Alberta thanks to "Your friend the rat" in the Ratatouille DVD, back when those were still a thing.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- WorkerBee28474 2y agoLink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KsjWUCUJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KsjWUCUJQ
- diego_moita 2y agoTwo important secrets are geography and recent occupation of the land. Rats (like sparrows) need to be around human garbage to thrive. Alberta's population is highly concentrated in a central corridor that goes from Edmonton to Calgary. Around that there is very little population: the Rockies on the West, the Saskatchewan prairies on the East, the uninhabited Northwest Territories on the North and Montana on the South. Besides that, the province was established in 1905 and had very few people until the oil boom in the 70s. These 2 factors made it easy to start early and expand the extermination gradually. These days the wars are mostly outside of the province, to prevent the rats from coming back. The only rats I've seen here are lab rats, grown under special license. I've had also the tiny field mice (actually it is a vole) in my backyard but they're very easy to catch: just keep the place clean and use a cheap trap once every 4 years. So our big cities don't have rats but we have lots of sparrows, crows, hares, magpies, squirrels, hawks, coyotes, seagulls, etc... Sometimes we also have white tail deer and pelicans. Oh, and we have almost no snakes or other reptiles, too! The only one I've seen is the gartner snake but here in Edmonton it is just a little bigger than an earthworm.
- soperj 2y agoShould be possible for saskatchewan to do the same then. No reason BC can't either since they've got the rockies, and an ocean.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- id34 2y agoI believe, as the parent comment alluded to, the rat patrol has established a substantial beachhead into SK. The front lines are now outside the province and pushing east. I've wondered about BC though - outside the density of the lower mainland anyways.
- morbicer 2y agoOcean is not a win. It means large sea ports and hence an influx of new rats.
- StayTrue 2y agoFor sure. In my experience there are two places I can go in Victoria and be guaranteed to find rats—one is the harbour.
- stackghost 2y agoThey say in Vancouver you're never more than 20 feet from a rat, anywhere you go. Probably true throughout most PNW cities.
- dehugger 2y agoI've lived in Bellingham (40 minutes south of Vancouver) for over ten years and have literally never seen a rat. Am I A) blind, B) something about the city here prevents rats from settling, or secret option C) something else entirely?
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- id34 2y agoGrowing up in AB, I really didn't conceptually understand what rats are like in other places. I can't think of another animal with that same ubiquitousness. Having no exposure as a kid means I find them terribly terribly gross when I see them in other places - in a park in Mexico City a couple months ago I audibly jumped when I saw them rooting around in gardens. Probably something to be said about exposure therapy
- hbn 2y agoI've lived in Saskatchewan my whole life where we don't have this law and I can't say I've seen a lot of rats in my life. Maybe if you work in unhygienic restaurant kitchens, or on a farm you might see them more. But in the city, it's not a thing I can ever remember encountering.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoIf you're in Saskatchewan and you see rats you call Alberta. They'll come by and get rid of them for you.
- tonyarkles 2y agoI laughed so so hard when Ratatouille came out and had this little extra feature on the DVD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=-2xD9ShhMZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=-2xD9ShhMZU Also another SK HNer checking in!
- dboreham 2y agoYou'll see vast numbers of rats any night in downtown Seattle or San Francisco.
- gotaran 2y agoI lived in both for more than a decade. I only remember seeing a mouse sized rat once in Seattle. Never saw one in SF. I live in NYC now and see multiple on a daily basis. Exposure therapy helps, but barely. It still scares the shit out of me a few years in.
- neom 2y agoI declined a job in Calgary due to this ban. I've kept rats for 20 years, couldn't imagine moving to a province I couldn't have a pet rat in.
- _t6sv 2y agoWhy not just get a cat? Genuinely curious, not trying to poke fun. What makes rats good pets?
- IncreasePosts 2y agoJust glue a bushy tail to them and call them squirrels
- whycome 2y agodid you know about the ban in advance? Or was it a surprise when getting ready to move there? Or did the place disclose that during recruitment "FYI, no rats allowed"
- neom 2y agoI was aware, but the hiring manager thought I would be able to work from an office out of BC, however when it came down to it, in-person in Calgary was required, so I declined.
- walrus01 2y agoI've never in my life heard of an individual person being prosecuted for violating the ban keeping a few as a pet at home. It's not like there's an inter-provincial border inspection checkpoint at the AB border, or house to house searches.
- dblohm7 2y agoAlbertans will "rat" (pun-intended) each other out for stuff like this.
- dowager_dan99 2y ago
- paul7986 2y agoRecently in Banff and Jasper while my comment isn't about rats I found Banff's whole Jurrasic Park wilderness to be fascinating. Meaning there must be 30 to 60 miles of fencing blocking wildlife from entering the highway. To enter into the wilderness there you can park your car in state park parking lot, then step up a few stairs, open the locked gate and then go down a few stairs into the wilderness. For me (from Pennsylvania/Maryland) it had a definite Jurassic Park vibe.
- dorfsmay 2y agoThe more interesting part are the bridges where wildlife can cross safely above the highway. https://arc-solutions.org/article/banff-bears-use-trans-canada-wildlife-crossings-to-find-mates-wildlife-crossings-can-cost-up-to-4m-each-but-benefit-bear-populations/ https://arc-solutions.org/article/banff-bears-use-trans-cana...
- dowager_dan99 2y agoA few comments to help: >> To enter into the wilderness there you can park your car in state park parking lot, we don't have states or state parks, but provinces and the parks you visited were federal. Banff, and to a lesser extent Jasper, are pretty tame with respect to "wilderness" but this is mostly a good thing! There's lots of facilities and you can experience them without needing to go into the remote backcountry - but it's there if/when you want to. There are also electrified crossings with no gates, which always freak me out a bit. They feel like a trap.
- SpicyUme 2y agoI like the wildlife gates that you see in sections of Vancouver island. Although I did see a guy go through then unsuccessfully attempt to hold it open for his wife and baby. https://www.munckhof.com/product/one-way-wildlife-gates/ https://www.munckhof.com/product/one-way-wildlife-gates/
- hilbert42 2y ago"Most people in Alberta had never been in contact with rats and did not know what they looked like or how to control them." Uh 'Most'!? What!? Amazing to think there was or is any place in earth except say Antarctica where rats were so few and far between that people didn't even know what they looked like. Have none of them ever read Kenneth Grahame's children's book The Wind in the Willows and seen various drawings and depictions of Ratty? Strikes me as gross exaggeration and hyperbole, even if they'd never seen a rat in real life (which is pretty hard to believe) then it's even harder to believe they'd never seen a photograph or drawing of one. For obvious reasons I daren't venture here any further.
- nightowl_games 2y agoI grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, and have never seen a rat in my life. I've seen plenty of mice, and I've seen a handful of rat traps, but I've never actually seen a rat. And I grew up on a farm in the 90s, no TV, no video games. I was outside shooting pellet guns, catching snakes, feeding kittens, riding dirt bikes my whole childhood. No rats.
- hilbert42 2y ago"I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan,… …outside shooting pellet guns, catching snakes, feeding kittens, riding dirt bikes my whole childhood. " I had a similar outdoors childhood in a town of about 10k people in a mountainous area about 70 miles from the State's capital city. You can never explain to those who've not experienced growing up that way about how wonderful it is. One exception however, catching snakes was a no-no for this reason: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_brown_snake https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_brown_snake (read the fine print about how venomous it is). I accidentally stepped on one when I was about 14 and luckily I'm still here. I was running along a bush track and turned into a right-angle bend and the snake—which was out of sight round the bend—was sunning itself in the middle of the track and I couldn't pull up in time—and squish! The snake shot off in one direction and I did the fastest back-flip in my life in the other direction. I was trembling with fright for about ten minutes after that. "… No rats." Perhaps you shouldn't advertise the fact that Saskatchewan is ratless as you might have an influx of migrants (of the human kind that is). On second thoughts, the last time I was in Saskatchewan (over two decades ago) it was so cold I may as well have been in Antarctica. Perhaps rats are smarter than we think. Being in 'Antarctica' is just a bit out of their comfort zone. BTW, I used to keep white rats and mice as pets when I was a kid (they were fun, I used to leave their cage doors open so they could roam and they'd return after exploring).
- steve_adams_86 2y agoFascinating. Not far from Alberta, here in Victoria BC I see rats on a very regular basis. They're all over the place. I used to live in a neighbourhood called Fernwood and had serious issues with rats infiltrating all parts of my home and shed. They'd create nests in strange places out of any kind of fibre they could find. I must have seen one per month at least while walking or riding my bike around, skittering across the road or between gardens. One time I got to see a hawk swoop down and grab one as it ran down the sidewalk. A couple months ago I saw one making some hilarious vertical hops trying to grab onto the siding of my neighbour's townhouse in broad daylight. The city is covered in them. Alberta must have excellent border patrol
- bobthepanda 2y agoYou would expect Victoria to have a shot at eradication given that it's on an island.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mb7733 2y agoGood luck, Victoria has a navy base! Alberta's advantage is being landlocked (and not a natural habitat for rats). They managed to keep the rats that arrived at the ports from encroaching inland.
- steve_adams_86 2y agoUnfortunately it's very hospitable to the vast majority of smaller animals since it doesn't get very cold on the south end of the island and there's a fair amount of food available. Rats live comfortably outside of cities here, and you'll find them out in the woods where they can eat insects, seeds, nuts, berries, etc for most/all of the year.
- tobyjsullivan 2y agoBritish Columbia has banned rat poison since around 2021. At least anecdotally, the impact on the local rat population has been exactly what you'd expect.
- Pikamander2 2y agoI'm curious as to how many problems rats really cause in a modern city. I live in a lightly forested area and have once or twice had to scare various rodents out of the attic and patch up a small hole they made, but that's about the worst they've ever done to me. One time I turned on the porch light at night and saw a very long-tailed rat nonchalantly eating from the bird feeder, which was fun to watch. A quick Google search suggests that there are millions of rats living in New York City and Los Angeles, but I don't recall hearing about any recent catastrophies they've caused. I guess it's possible they could someday transmit a new novel disease like bats did, so we probably don't wanna let their numbers get too high, but other than that, are they really hurting anything? I view them about the same as pigeons or moths; occasionally annoying, but not something to relentlessly eradicate.
- bawolff 2y ago> I'm curious as to how many problems rats really cause in a modern city. For context, there is a lot of farmland in alberta. I think the reason for this is more to protect agriculture than city drewlers. But also rats are icky.
- InDubioProRubio 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthohantavirus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthohantavirus
- dowager_dan99 2y agoyes it's the agricultural impact, both real and perceived (most of Alberta's crops are export-bound).
- fifticon 2y agoa basic problem is their easy population explosion. As soon as you allow a sizable population of them to thrive, it becomes very hard to keep them in check in the places where you really don't want them. In my smallish european city, we have a few food courts. The outer doors are normally open/ajar in day time. I really really don't like seeing rats scurrying about under the benches and obstacles when I visit there to eat.
- barbazoo 2y agoI'm surprised they haven't yet switched to celebrating rats, no longer recognizing them as a pest /s https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/10/18/news/alberta-ucp-vote-co2-not-pollutant https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/10/18/news/alberta-ucp...
- dowager_dan99 2y agoNice pseudo "news" reference; no possible bias there and not remotely related to this topic. `Canada's National Observer (CNO) delivers vital reporting on the defining crisis of our time: climate change`
- 8note 2y agoits pretty reasonable that rhe wild rose folks would want to end funding for the rat patrol. im surprised that they havent
- barbazoo 2y agoFair point: https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-ucp-to-vote-on-celebrating-co2-abandoning-net-zero-targets-1.7080000 https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-ucp-to-vote-on-celebrati...
- tetnis 2y agolol, same author from the same org with paragraphs copied and pasted from the other source. did u even read
- barbazoo 2y agohttps://www.unitedconservative.ca/wp-content/uploads/Resolutions-2024.pdf https://www.unitedconservative.ca/wp-content/uploads/Resolut... > POLICY RESOLUTION #12 https://www.desmog.com/2024/11/02/alberta-conservatives-pass-climate-denial-resolution-12-to-celebrate-co2-pollution/ https://www.desmog.com/2024/11/02/alberta-conservatives-pass... > In approving the resolution, the UCP resolved to abandon the province’s net zero targets, remove the designation of CO2 as a pollutant, and further “recognize that CO2 is a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth.”
- andreygagloev 2y ago[dead]
- smurpy 2y agoI personally saw a rat cavorting quite vivaciously on a pallet of dogfood in the Bonnie Doon K-Mart (in Edmonton, Alberta) in around 2002. I have no basis for any claims about whether said rat was in a committed sexual relationship so cannot make any assertions about whether it was part of a breeding population in Alberta. Perhaps "spontaneous generation" (see Middle Ages) is a thing! Admittedly, it might have been a hapax -- some bold and singular rat Magellan travelling the Earth on bulk food pallets. I dare not presume. To staunch any other niggling, I am neither sure of the year nor whether that property was bearing the K-Mart branding at that time. It has also been a Zellers and a Target, if memory serves.
- Steven420 2y agoAlberta is an example for the world and especially those knuckle heads down in Florida on how to deal with invasive species
- tetnis 2y agoYes, Florida was unaware that other places dealt with pests effectively.