Predators, Pests, Poisons.

Predators, pests, poisons.
I would like to start with my own quote: Seth quoting Seth HAR! < self infactuation Har!
Poisons:

Seth Wetmore wrote:Rats on Rats.

Poison should be generally avoided. Why? For many reasons.
1. The poison lingers, possibly poisoning other predator/scavengers that may be controlling the rat population.
2. Environmental contamination, think water supplies, New York already has plutonium contamination no need to further contaminate the water shed.
3. Where does this poor rodent go to die? Say it is in your wall? what will you do about the stench of the decaying carcass for the next 3 months? Or would you preffer to remodel everytime a critter dies in your wall?
4. As with other predators the house hold cat and dog are both predators who may decide an ailing rat is easy sport only to find they just ate the poison that was killing the rat. There goes fluffy and fido poor animals who now have cost you medical bills and burial fees as well as your personal grief.
5. Chilldren know nothing about poison blocks or pellets, SO PLEASE DO NOT USE POISON FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR CHILDREN.
6. Poison is temperary and only controls a single animal, breaking only the life cycle of the rat that ate the poison. It does not deal with the rats brothers, sisters, cousins etc.
7. Read the warning labels of the poisons you wish to employ, maybe the warning is enough to convince you that some other method would be preferable.
8. Poison is not humane not that any form of killing truely is, but poisoning is not a moral option. The army has banned chemical warfare due to the effects of watching the suffering. Not that any form of killing does not include suffering.
9. Giving money to large corperations that poison us is ultimatly bad all the way around oddly enough even the corperation suffers.
10. Are you truely convinced that a single individual can stop what millions of individuals have been unable do stop for the last few hundred years?
SO hopefully I have made a case to STOP USING POISON! PERIOD!
As to sollutions here are some ideas that may benefit you with out poisoning everything in site.

ANYTHING is BETTER than POISON.
Have a great day

Hopefully I am not being overly cinical.
There is a time and a place for most things I just can not wrap my mind around the destruction I have caused by using toxic poison Gick Begining with directed poisons. It shames me to remember and act with no thought to what other critters would be affected.
I am still prone to killing specific insect species with extream prejudice, yet I do my best to not use poisons.
The case senario being debated above had to do with rat control in new york city.

So here we go with Pests:
Pests are only pests if they are causing a problem. So The question I have is what are they doing and can thier efforts be redirected?

Predators:
Predators Can be a very scary subject. I hope people see the benefits of predators and can resolve thier differences concerning the dangers.

I have not thought to hard on the subject, what I wanted to start with is the poison problem, when Ia satisfied with the discussion we will move on to the next subject. Thank you for participating.

Another point to look at is Predation over pests.
Are animals and insects appropriate to introduce as predators over pests?
If the predator to be introduced is already native to the area, then I find no argument with using it.
Yet the balance of predators over prey has other implications.

I developed a bad rat problem over the summer raising organic meat chickens repeatedly all summer and recently this week a raccoon has been wreaking havoc with my chickens inside my barn . I have had my best results getting the rats with a little grain in the bottom of a large metal drum attracting rats that have access to getting in and once in cannot leap out, I unapologetically club them with a 2 x 6 to dispatch them. I have not erradicated them all yet . The other day I was dressed to go out in a light blouse and grabbed two hens I found roosting in the barn and locked them them in the hen house . About an hour later I noticed bites , I am suspecting flea bites on my skin. The next day I had a fever, sore joints and sore muscles , thinking I had the flu but no intestinal problems . Then I looked up the symptoms and found this , worth reading to be aware of how disease can pass from rodents to poultry through mites and fleas and ticks , onto people. I was feeling better today, 24 hours later so assumed my immune system has taken care of the issue (?) Tomorrow I am going to strip my stalls in the barn and hen house and lime everything to help get rid of fleas :

http://perfecthealthtoday.com/Flea_Bites.html