Hi all,
Southern (Riverina) NSW and northern Victoria is currently experiencing a mice plague. The plague is of major concern to grain farmers. Many recently sown crops are very patchy because mice have eaten much of the planted seed.
Some farmers are mixing poison with grain and spreading the toxic mix on paddocks to kill mice.
Unfortunately, the toxic mix is also killing both seed-eating birds such as Galahs and birds which predate on mice, including Barn Owls, Falcons and Magpies.
It is not only in the countryside that bird deaths are being observed. Even here in the town there have been reports of dead Ravens and Magpies.
The spreading of poison is another blow to our local birds, following years of drought and the impact of chemicals used to help combat a locust plague.
Let’s hope that better ways are used to help combat the present plague which frosty nights and birds might eventually alleviate.
Keith Stockwell Echuca-Moama
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Comments
5 responses to “Mice plague and bird deaths”
My info may be out of dait, but I thought the main issue with bird deaths from rodenticides is secondary poisoning after birds eat several rodents that have been poioned with brodificum baits (e.g. talon). The baits are in wax blocks and birds don’t tend to eat them. The rodents are slow to die and therefore easy prey. Owls in particualr tend to eat the rodents whole. There is a cumulative affect as the toxin remains active in the carcassess of the rodents. I doubt that a bitter additive would change this scenario. David James, Sydney burunglaut07@yahoo.com ==============================
Sent: Monday, 30 May 2011 4:04 PM
Just been doing a spot of research and I wonder why the companies that make the mouse and rat poison don’t include trace amounts of denatonium benzoate – apparently birds can detect it at much lower concentrations than rodents. If it was included in the formulation, it would deter birds from eating the posion baits and might even be present in rodent corpses in enough concentration to deter birds from eating those as well. In case you’re wondering what the stuff is, it’s also known as Bitrex and is the bitterest substance known – 10 parts per million can make something inedible to people and they use it in antifreeze to stop kids drinking it. Cheers,
Tony
Good tip but I would not encourage anyone to try getting their hands on it. I used to be manager of a plant that made an antifreeze product occasionally and the guys hated Bitrex with a passion. Despite wearing dust masks they would complain they couldn’t get the taste out of their mouths for days. Not something to muck around with in a domestic setting, if anyone was thinking about it…
Definitely not a ‘try-at-home’ job – just wondering why manufacturers don’t do it. The old method used round our way probably wouldn’t work on plague proportions – a mixture of icing sugar and plaster of Paris. Apparently, they can’t taste the plaster and wolf it down in large enough amounts to set. Cheers,
Tony
Just been doing a spot of research and I wonder why the companies that make the mouse and rat poison don’t include trace amounts of denatonium benzoate – apparently birds can detect it at much lower concentrations than rodents. If it was included in the formulation, it would deter birds from eating the posion baits and might even be present in rodent corpses in enough concentration to deter birds from eating those as well. In case you’re wondering what the stuff is, it’s also known as Bitrex and is the bitterest substance known – 10 parts per million can make something inedible to people and they use it in antifreeze to stop kids drinking it. Cheers,
Tony
Hi Keith
this makes sense of the dead magpie in our yard which seemed in good condition. we don’t use poisons for the mice but others do. Our house is currently mouse proof but when they did get in previously we used a mouse trap which caught them alive and released them.
Gary
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