Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
I’m getting worried about my own yard. Normally, I would be overrun by chipmunks by now. On warm days, they even pop out for a snack in the dead of winter.
I haven’t seen a chipmunk in my yard since November. Not one.
Perhaps there’s a particularly talented short-tailed weasel haunting my neighborhood. They prowl my yard in some winters, but I usually see them or their tracks when they’re around. I fear that the reason I haven’t seen a weasel this year is for the same reason I haven’t seen a chipmunk.
Rat poison.
The poisons-du-jour are known as second-generation rodenticides, or SGARs. They are anticoagulants. A critter that ingests the poison dies from internal bleeding.
The poisons are contained in bait stations sized for rodents, too small for pets or other animals to enter. The problem is that any predator that later eats the rodent gets poisoned by proxy. SGARs are working their way up the food chain.
Canines, felines and weasels are at risk. Hawks and owls are particularly vulnerable, especially since sick prey is easier to catch. One recent study in Massachusetts discovered that 100% of the red-tailed hawks tested had SGARs in their systems.
That study reminded me of a snowy owl that wandered all the way to Bermuda in 2013. It spent the winter foraging around the dockyard, delighting all the residents who went to see it. An arctic owl wintering in Bermuda — imagine that.
It died of SGAR poisoning.
This is not suddenly a new problem. In 2015, the EPA tightened regulations, banning retail sales to the public. Use is restricted to licensed professionals. Some states have gone even farther.
Unfortunately, the use of SGARs by professional exterminators is now so widespread, you see the black plastic traps everywhere.
I’m not blaming the professionals who are handling the rodenticides according to law and regulation. Nor should anyone be expected to feel okay about rat infestations. But there are alternative ways to deal with a rodent problem, although most are not as easy and convenient as poison.
We’ve been through this before. Not until Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” did the dangers of widespread DDT application hit home with the public.
By then, peregrine falcons had disappeared from eastern states. Ospreys were declining fast, and bald eagles were listed as an endangered species.
We’re going through it again now. Not a day goes by that PFAS or another “forever chemical” doesn’t make the news. Humans have a long tradition of ignoring little dangers in our environment until they become big dangers. Plus, it’s often a tradeoff. Environmentally harmful chemicals may have positive uses as well, and it’s hard to decide how much collateral damage is tolerable.
Some of the same arguments apply when considering the effect of lead sinkers that poison loons and lead ammunition that poisons scavenging eagles.
I can’t predict the future. No, wait, I can. If law and regulation occur in the ways they normally do, people will increasingly recognize that SGARs are a problem. The federal government will be slow to respond. Some states and communities will lead the way with tighter regulations.
I predict much more attention will be given to the safer alternatives, including the most obvious.
Sometimes the best way to eliminate rats is to eliminate rat food.
Better garbage storage and more secure dumpsters are already being tried in some New England cities. Heck, that’s what I already do to keep bears off my porch.
To put the risk of SGARs to birds in perspective, there are bigger threats to all our feathered friends returning to Maine right now. It’s becoming apparent that overuse of pesticides has wiped out much of the food supply for aerial insectivores, which are declining at an alarming rate.
The danger is astronomically greater from habitat loss, collisions with manmade objects and predation by outdoor cats.
Meanwhile, I miss my chipmunks. There are usually so many around the neighborhood. Their disappearance is a sad surprise.
Gray squirrels fear me. Red squirrels scorn me. But the chipmunks tolerate me. They let their families wander the yard, even if I’m standing right there. You can tell which chipmunks are the youngsters. They have short tails.
I’ll argue that Mainers appreciate wildlife more than the average residents of other states. That’s the benefit of living close to nature. We notice when things are going wrong.
