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How Alberta Eradicated Rats
- stackedinserter 4mo agoSo, even impossible things can be made possible if there's enough determination and political will.
- forlorn_mammoth 4mo agoeliminate malaria from the continental US. Check. eliminate smallpox. Check. eliminate measles. Own goal.
- itintheory 4mo agoAnother own goal - eliminate screw worm from north america...
- thatoneengineer 4mo agoDon't forget screwworms! https://cr.usembassy.gov/sections-offices/aphis/screwworm-program/ https://cr.usembassy.gov/sections-offices/aphis/screwworm-pr...
- gbacon 4mo agoIs it your position that private pest control could not achieve the same or better result for at most the same cost? Are you an economic calculation problem denier?
- stackedinserter 4mo agoCan you keep going and generate more assumptions about me?
- RetroTechie 4mo agoIt's possible even the strongest believers in privatized-everything-is-better can change their minds given time & enough examples of effective public sector.
- virgil_disgr4ce 4mo agoThe Freakonomics podcast did a series on rats and their relationship to cities and humans and talked about Alberta's approach—it was really fascinating, I'd recommend it: https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/sympathy-for-the-rat https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/sympathy-for-the-rat
- Hugsbox 4mo agoEvery so often I'll mention online that Alberta has no rats, and inevitably there will be an American responding in absolute disbelief saying I'm full of shit. I may not live in Alberta, but luckily rats aren't really a thing in my neck of the woods. Travel an hour down the highway and it's a different story. Also, as an aside, people often don't believe me when I say I've never seen a cockroach before in my life. Not a one. I've seen pictures of em, and I'm pretty sure if I saw one of those things irl I would absolutely shit myself.
- mc32 4mo agoDon’t receive shipments of goods from out of province then. Vermin get transported in packaging easily.
- llm_nerd 4mo agoAlberta of course has rats. Short of being a hermit nation with impassable borders, the alternative is impossible. But they maintain such a critically low number through aggressive, non-stop actions that we declare it "rat free", though that's a misnomer. Similar to the measles free status doesn't actually mean measles free, but rather that it isn't spreading uncontrolled. Though as someone who lives in Ontario, I just wanted to add that I've never seen a vermin rat in my life in this province. Not in Toronto or its subways, not on its streets, nor in various other cities throughout the province. I've seen mice, of course, but never rats. I know they exist here, but someone having not experienced them doesn't mean much.
- y2244 4mo agoThis bit made me laugh But wild rats are rare. Albertans have grown so unaccustomed to rats that they frequently mistake squirrels, gophers, and other small animals for them: of the 875 reported sightings in 2025, only 47 turned out to be actual rats.
- functionmouse 4mo agoI bet most of those were rats
- jp_sc 4mo agoOne of the bonus features of the movie Ratatouille has a short video-game sequence about it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-2xD9ShhMZU http://youtube.com/watch?v=-2xD9ShhMZU
- staplung 4mo agoTom Scott did a video a few years ago about New Zealand's attempt to eliminate rats by 2050. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcp1BfPUeOc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcp1BfPUeOc The program is actually called "Predator Free 2050" and also aims to eliminate possums and stoats. No mention is made of Uruk-hai, orcs, or Balrogs.
- tokai 4mo ago>Uruk-hai, orcs, or Balrogs Aren't they native?
- dmbrThnYou 4mo agoHad they not been so greedy mining for mithril, maybe there wouldn't have been Balrogs. Not sure if that makes Balrogs invasive.
- whynotmaybe 4mo agoAren't there only a few of them? Is a few invasive? How does a balrog reproduce btw?
- debo_ 4mo agoYou see, when two Maia love each other very much...
- bragr 4mo agoUruk-hai are GMO
- mig39 4mo agoI live in Alberta. No rats here. Also the ticks here don't spread Lyme disease.
- bluefirebrand 4mo agoAlbertan here too. Can confirm no rats My friend got Lyme disease from a tick though so I can't agree with that part
- jessewmc 4mo agoA tick bite in alberta? diagnosed lyme? when? seems very unlikely - there are no recorded cases in the 30+ years of tracking of a case of lyme disease from a bite _in alberta_. All from exposure elsewhere (not to say that alberta will stay that lucky forever)
- bluefirebrand 4mo agoPossible she wasn't in Alberta when she got the tick bite, I'm not 100% certain. She may have been on a trip to Saskatchewan or something but she lives in Alberta and definitely was diagnosed with lyme disease from a tick bite. Possible the bite happened elsewhere and just wasn't discovered until she got back home though. She does travel around a bit
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- sojournerc 4mo agoThey likely spread rocky mountain fever instead, if they are dog ticks like we have in Colorado.
- cmrdporcupine 4mo ago> the ticks here don't spread Lyme disease. this is out of date information unfortunately. With warming climate, the black-legged tick has spread into Alberta and samples have been found with the Lyme disease bacterium. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/tick-lyme-disease-edmonton-alberta https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/tick-lyme-diseas...
- yawnxyz 4mo ago> Author: Deena Mousa clearly an article sponsored by Big Mouse
- bluefirebrand 4mo agohttps://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program Relevant government website for those curious We have online reporting for rat sightings that they take action on
- mekdoonggi 4mo agoI wonder if we stopped trying to eradicate coyotes we might have an easier time with rats. I personally would rather see a coyote than a rat.
- OptionOfT 4mo agoThis inevitably brings us to the story of the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, and how they eat the deer which brings back a whole new slew of changes.
- bragr 4mo agoNot to be downer, but recent studies have not corroborated those effects. >One of the most celebrated claims about Yellowstone’s wolves is facing a major challenge. Scientists say the study behind the famous trophic cascade story relied on flawed methods that overstated the ecological impact of wolf recovery. Their reanalysis found no evidence for a dramatic, park-wide surge in willow growth. Instead, the effects appear smaller and vary from place to place. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260613215510.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260613215510.h...
- mekdoonggi 4mo agoIs there a word for a popular misconception that nonetheless produces a positive result? The understanding by the public of the effects could be completely wrong, but the reintroduction of wolves and the restoration of Yellowstone are still good things.
- lovemenot 4mo agopropaganda?
- sidewndr46 4mo agofox eat rats too
- cmrdporcupine 4mo ago
- tweaktastic 4mo agoGreat read. I didn't know how exactly the rats were eradicated from Alberta something I have just heard and taken for granted. Reading the article provided a great overview of how much effort it really took to do it. I would like to mention that, even though Alberta is rat free, we still have mice that can make your life misreble if they somehow enter your house/office.
- dan353hehe 4mo ago> But it was easy to prove warfarin was safe: a pest control officer held a series of local meetings where he ate warfarin-treated rolled oats while discussing rat control. Got to love those live demos. Eating rat poison in front of the audience to prove it is safe!
- _whiteCaps_ 4mo agoThe dose makes the poison. Warfarin is prescribed as a blood thinner for humans.
- scotty79 4mo agoIs it only the dose? I think I read somewhere that rodents are especially vulnerable to this substance for some genetic reason. To lazy to check again. Not to lazy to pronounce my ignorance in a comment. Oh my.
- joseda-hg 4mo agoI mean, however close we might treat them as, they're still fundamentally diferent animals Since they can't throw up or burp, something that produces enough gas (More than a regular soda) could in theory kill a rat, but just make a human slightly inconvenienced, or on the same idea, you could wrap the poisson on an emetic agent to make it safer while not affecting the rat at all
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- graeme 4mo ago>Is it only the dose? I think they meant, for humans, the dose makes the poison. We would have to eat a very large amount of warfarin to have trouble. Rats get hurt from a small amount. Poison is dose dependent, but the actual dose dependency is different between species.
- debo_ 4mo agoAlberta has shown us that proper policy incentives can drive meaningful change. Instead of leaving rats to languish in cellars, they created incentives for them to do meaningful work in the provincial government instead.
- kazinator 4mo agoAlso, many of them are sepa-RAT-ists.
- verelo 4mo agoThe irony that they figured out how to eliminate rats, but can’t diversify from oil and gas is pretty special.
- gucci-on-fleek 4mo agoIt's unsurprising from a financial perspective, since both oil and gas (directly) and rat eradication (indirectly) make the province a ton of money.
- verelo 4mo agoGiven the trajectory of the world’s on, it seems pretty obvious to me that diversifying from oil and gas is required for a long-term sustainable economy. I think the more interested in short term benefits than long-term success.
- gucci-on-fleek 4mo ago> Given the trajectory of the world’s on, it seems pretty obvious to me that diversifying from oil and gas is required for a long-term sustainable economy. I agree that that would be a good idea, but oil and gas are so deeply embedded in the local culture that it won't be very easy to convince everyone else that it's a good idea. > I think the more interested in short term benefits than long-term success. There is unfortunately a tendency to do that here [0] [1] :( [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Heritage_Savings_Trust_Fund#Criticisms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Heritage_Savings_Trust... [1]: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/alberta-governments-new-budget-officially-puts-halt-heritage-fund-deposits https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/alberta-governmen...
- johnsutor 4mo agoThere was a Joe Pera episode where they made a musical about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LEJSMm1qpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LEJSMm1qpM.
- cogman10 4mo agoHere in Boise Idaho, we are watching the local governments completely fail. We've not had rats here until somewhat recently. The State, County, and cities have all taken a "not our problem" attitude to it and instead of putting in any sort of pest management/eradication programs they've basically just said "good luck everyone".
- dang 4mo agoRelated: On the front lines of humanity’s high-tech, global war on rats (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17821534 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17821534 - Aug 2018 (1 comment) On the front lines of humanity’s high-tech war on rats - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9540096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9540096 - May 2015 (32 comments) I thought there had been other threads about this but couldn't find them. Anyone?
- NaOH 4mo agoNew York claims a small victory in 'forever war on rats' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42918425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42918425 - Feb 2025 (204 comments) Cats are no match for New York City's rats (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38333054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38333054 - Nov 2023 (77 comments) How rats became an inescapable part of city living - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19413214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19413214 - Mar 2019 (52 comments) The Case for Leaving City Rats Alone (2016) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19207172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19207172 - Feb 2019 (14 comments) Drones Help Rid Galapagos Island of Invasive Rats - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19078518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19078518 - Feb 2019 (58 comments) New Zealand’s War on Rats (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16891549 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16891549 - April 2018 (34 comments) New Zealand’s War on Rats Could Change the World - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15730337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15730337 - Nov 2017 (3 comments)
- swader999 4mo agoWe sure have a lot of gophers though. They are cuter but you should still treat them like rats, no touch or try to play with them. Lots of diseases...
- tim333 4mo agoI wonder if people could do bed bugs? Those are rather annoying.
- hollerith 4mo agoAnd pigeons!
- msukkarieh 4mo agothere's no rats but there has been an uptick in voles and other rodents also Alberta, Canada mentioned
- BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 4mo agoLots of rodents in Alberta. The neighbourhood cats keep the mice and hantavirus down. Aircraft are often infested with mice. We need more bullsnakes.
- sellmesoap 4mo agoTime to flip the Samuel Jackson quote upside down, we need more mf'in snakes on the mf'in plane!
- triceratops 4mo ago> The neighbourhood cats keep the mice and hantavirus down. Aircraft are often infested with mice They aren't doing a good job of keeping them "down" if they're on planes.
- cucumber3732842 4mo agoAirports have tons of food (grass environment + human garbage), tons of mouse habitat (grassy areas, outbuildings, machinery), and not many cats.
- triceratops 4mo agoIt was a joke. If mice are in aircraft they are "up" (in the air), not "down".
- grahamburger 4mo agoI learned all about this from Joe Pera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LEJSMm1qpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LEJSMm1qpM
- shawnz 4mo agoSee also this exploration from Strange Aeons: https://youtu.be/vMOMa-4D1yQ?si=t1uxfY1pEDh2a44Y https://youtu.be/vMOMa-4D1yQ?si=t1uxfY1pEDh2a44Y
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- beloch 4mo agoA correction: "One mayor refused to cooperate because he thought the program was a distraction cooked up by the ruling United Conservative Party." The UCP was established in 2017 and has no relation to the Social Credit Party that controlled Alberta's legislature during the time period being spoken of.
- cmrdporcupine 4mo agoSaying "no relation" is almost stretching it a bit. I kinda give hats off to someone for the slipup. It's not the same legal entity but there's a continuous ideological (and even personal) connection going all the way back. The way I see it ... Peter Lougheed through Getty and (arguably Stelmach era) was a bit of a brief interruption. His urban, pragmatic PCs pushed the older rural, evangelical Socreds out of power in the 70s.. but that populist movement just went briefly into a (vaguely) outsider status, organized through Alberta Report, etc got into Klein's cabinet, found a national voice in Preston Manning's Reform Party, and returned provincially via the Wildrose Party, and finally triumphally recaptured the province under the banner of the UCP So not legally the same part, but frankly just really the same minus all the weird fixation on currencies, banks, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (... so far!) All of this off topic from rats. (Maybe?)
- conartist6 4mo ago... ... all i learned is that eventually Alberta will have rats, and that nowhere else can ever replicate their success. Thank you, next
- textmessage 4mo agoAlbertan here. Never seen a rat outside of a research lab. We do have mice though.
- dwd 4mo agoThe whole public buy-in is very much what is going on in Queensland, Australia right now that is attempting to eradicate fire ants. Even the funding fight to get the Commonwealth and neighbouring states to pitch in, as they have the potential to become endemic to the whole continent. We also have a lot of "sovereign citizen" people pushing misinformation about the safety of the various chemicals used, attempting to deny inspectors onto properties, and general complaints about helicopter/drone dispersal in inaccessible areas and large farms/properties.