We live on a small island which is getting rather overcrowded. As we fight for space with other residents, it is inevitable there will be some clashes.
Traditionally the answer has been to shoot, gas, poison, hunt, snare or trap. But scientific studies are increasingly showing that methods which focus on removing individual animals, whether through killing them or through removing them by using a cage trap, are inferior.
Why lethal methods fail #
Quite simply, other animals remaining in the area will move in and breed to replace any killed or removed.
Animals are attracted to an area by territory availability, food and shelter. If all these things remain in place and individual animals are removed or killed, animals in surrounding territories will soon move in to take advantage of the available resource. Lethal methods may bring about a short term improvement but it won’t last and it would be necessary to keep killing. We suspect this is why most pest control companies use these methods – the repeat business is much more lucrative than actually solving the problem!
Other issues with lethal control #
Not only are lethal methods ineffective, they’re also dangerous and cruel.
Poison #
Poison is often used to kill rats and mice but its use on many other species is illegal. The first issue with using poison is that, in order for there to be a significant pest issue, they must have access to food and water. Trying to entice animals to eat a block of poison rather than whatever other food is available is very difficult. Rodents are intelligent animals and naturally wary of anything new. They quickly make the association between the bait and their friends dying and stop eating it.
The second issue is that rodents are evolving immunity to the poisons used to kill them. Warfarin used to be commonly used but no longer has the desired effect due to overuse.
Poison also kills indiscriminately. When a nursing female is affected, her dependent babies will be left to starve slowly.
Most rodenticides kill by causing the animal to bleed internally. Death can take several days and is excruciating.
Although called ‘rodenticides’, the poisons used to kill rodents do not exclusively harm them. They are just as dangerous to humans, pets, and other wildlife as they are to rodents. Every year there are tragic stories of dogs, hedgehogs etc consuming poison intended for rodents and suffering terribly. Even if deployed in a way to prevent non-target species from accessing it, poisoned animals are often then consumed by predators leading to secondary poisoning of animals such as foxes and birds of prey.
Used inside your home, poison brings the very real risk of animals dying within your house, often in cavities which are not easily accessed. You’re then left with decaying bodies and the resulting smell, flies, maggots and health risks.
Glue traps #
Glue traps are literally boards which are covered in glue. They are placed in areas the rodents commonly pass through and the animals become stuck to them. This either enables the pest controller/householder to kill the stuck animals, or they’re left to die from dehydration, starvation or secondary issues such as blood loss from damage caused by escape attempts. These are truly evil contraptions and a bill has passed which will make them illegal for public use in England.
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Snap Traps #
Snap traps involve a bar deploying on to the target animal’s head or neck to cause death. Even at their best, these traps commonly take up to three minutes to kill. Living for three minutes with a catastrophic head or neck injury must involve unimaginable pain and fear. And that’s the best case scenario.
Snap traps can also commonly harm non-target animals and wildlife rescues often see hedgehogs suffering horrendous injuries from this sort of trap.
What about trapping the animals and releasing them elsewhere? #
It may seem more humane to catch the problem animal in a trap and relocate them elsewhere. But studies have shown that animals relocated in this way have a poor survival rate. Territorial species may be attacked by animals already resident in the area, causing them to travel considerable distances in an attempt to find their own new territory. Without knowledge of sources of shelter and food in the new area, relocated individuals are at greatly increased risk of succumbing to starvation or predation.
So what is the answer? #
Put simply, the ‘pest’ is a symptom, not the problem itself. Killing the pest is a bit like catching drips from a leak in a bucket. It looks like you’ve solved the problem because your carpet is no longer getting wet, but until you fix the broken pipe, more drips will keep coming.
Our articles at https://helpwildlife.co.uk/advice/problem-wildlife/ detail how to use holistic, humane methods of habitat modification, prevention and deterrence to tackle some of the most common scenarios. We are happy to offer free, general advice regarding humane wildlife deterrence (just drop us an email) or we’ve gathered details of some companies which specialise in no-kill pest control here.
