I often am so deeply annoyed by this, about why can't people just be responsible when it comes to using pest poisons? Using traps are of course a much better option. But people (without a care in the world) still use poisons. Why? Because it's easy, that's why... Seriously, how often have you heard that someone threw out a dead poisoned rat, which someone's cat ended up dragging to his or her home to feast upon. We all know what the result will be. However what's even more upsetting is that city governments here sometime use poisoned meat to control the population of stray dogs. What they too don't realize is that birds often take away bits of that poisoned meat, and so the effect can literally spread to over a 100 kilometers! Am I searching for an answer here? No, just wondering, that's all. Wondering that since newer and newer poisons are coming out on the market. And each one claiming to be more lethal than the last - So where exactly are we heading? I guess what I'm really trying to ask here is: What will it take for people to become just a bit more responsible??? Do people simply not realize anymore? About how far reaching the effects of poisons can be in the environment? Is being responsible now just too much to ask?
What has continued to surprise me when listening to people who use chemicals is their belief in the advertising put out by chemical companies. They truly believe the poisons they use are safe. I believe people will believe the stories of the chemical companies (we tend to be a trusting species) until something personal happens to make them change their minds. I know for myself having the Intenet to research products has really changed my opinions on some products that were labeled safe and organic. The power of advertising was really brought home when our state had an initiative on the ballot to have labeling for foods with GMOs. There was a blitz of ads showing farmers saying how much this would hurt them on TV every fifteen minutes. If you read the fine print the ads were paid for by Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and a few other similar companies. Talking to people at work I was surprised at how most believed the ads. Of course the initiative failed. Lack of consumer information and corporations based solely on profit is a recipe for environmental disaster. Just a footnote on feral animals. We have animal control where strays are picked up. Several locations in the states have found that killing actual feral populations doesn't help. They just repopulate. They now use trap and release after neutering and spaying so the populations are stabilized. I know they have used this method in two different locations, one for feral bunnies and another for feral cats.
You are absolutely correct! People tend to believe whatever is being told to them. However that don't make them stupid, it just suppresses the urge to do some digging and explore the outcome by your own self... I remember (when I was perhaps 12) a story which was published in the newspaper. It said that a woman was eating biscuits loaded with cream. When she had eaten over half the pack, she realized that the whole thing had tiny ants on it. So at once she panicked (fearing that she may now die, as she ended up eating a few ants)... Therefore, she got this bright idea to kill off all the ants in her stomach - by drinking some insecticide! And so sure enough, she did manage to kill off every single ant - But she herself also didn't make it... This I think happened in Egypt (sometime in the late 1980s). It was a very famous case, globally published in many newspapers at the time. All because she actually believed that insecticides are all good, and will only harm insects, not people. Kind of like how the United Nations once advocated the widespread use of DDT...
My great-grandfather used DDT in the garden. I occasionally wonder how my grandfather survived since they ate the fruit and berries... My grandparents also used a lot of insecticides. The rats were poisoned and burned. Rat poison was delivered on your door every autumn compliments of the city council. Since I don't like any kind of poison we don't use pesticides at all. If we suspect mice in the basement we put up traps. I have to confess we use round-up in our driveway now and then, but only after having tried salt, boiling water and vinegar mix. I'd rather live with my pests than feeling responsible for poisoning the Earth. And for the record I've met a lot of gullible people who really think pesticides only kill the baddies, not the ladybirds or butterflies.
I'm good at setting mouse traps. Had customer ask me to set them for them. I buy the easy set type. Got ball of bull snakes in my compost. They take of mice.
well personally I think there was some misinformation on DDT from the start., Also if people use common sense when using chemicals things usually go as planned.
Yes, I too only use humane traps (and nothing else). In fact I even made a video about building a very effective mouse trap from scratch, (which just some basic hand tools). Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaysEyaiv0I I had assumed that since I'll be making the design public, many people will copy it - But up till now, I have not received a single email about it, nor is the video watched by many people...
ok, there's some apple trees on my brothers property, (rural). The apples were yummy, but the bugs got most of them., (The trees need pruned too, but that's another subject) THIS spring I'd like to spray something on these trees to kill the bugs so I can get me some good apples. Of course if natural would work I'd try that, but I want the bugs gone.
