Robert's Rants
Robert's Rants
A personal blog on the Canadian pesticide industry and other pet peeves and interests

True Detective #132

So the police respond to an odor complaint, Apartment 3G in the THC apartment complex off Bloor.

Upon arrival, they immediately know the problem, a corpse must be behind the cause, and behind the door to Apartment 3G.

Luckily enough they were being accompanied by that famous Canadian detective, JB “Gord” Fletcher (no relationship).

And sure enough, after kicking in the door there lies the corpse of a man sitting in his easy chair, the TV on to the latest CSINCISLAWSVU episode.

Dead as a door nail.

Mysterious circumstances, or just a plain old boring natural death?

So brilliant JB sums up the situation:

“400 pound man, mid-fifties.  Ashtray full of Camel butts, but he smoked alone.  Last meal was a party pizza, extra cheese, topped up with a 48 ounce slushy and a bag of cheetahs.  Face has that orange color you see in cheetah addicts. Beer cans everywhere, Coors Lite thank god.  Surgical tube pulled tight on one arm, but no needle.  Bottle of nitro, but not enough for a terrorist attack.  Bad heart?”

“What do think the cause of death to be?”  queries JB to his escorts.

Young rookie (are there ever old rookies?) surmises;

“This one’s too obvious.  Obese, addicted, alcoholic smoker with a bad ticker choked on a cheetah while going through withdrawal”.

“I second that” chimed in the old pro.

“Aha and au contraire” cried JB.   “On the surface it may look like an easy call but, you missed a few fine points.  If you look closely at the pizza box you’ll see the 3rd leg of a cockroach, obviously an Oriental nymph.  My guess 2nd instar.

“Secondly, what appears to be injection sites on his arms are actually bed bug bites.”

“Thirdly, if you look at your white socks you’ll see they are now covered in fleas.”

“And lastly, sitting on his windowsill is a can of BuGBuster Blaster”.

“So it’s pretty obvious…

Gotta be the pesticide!”

 

 

Robert’s Rule on Rodenticides: “What’s the Worse that can Happen”

Here’s the bare facts:

I believe the Industry has been given a false sense of comfort on the Evo Express and tampering.   Is the Evo 100% safe in preventing secondary poisoning?  Nope.

The other problem is we only have bromadiolone to use outdoors.  (except in underground burrows which is considered “indoors”)

Of the 2 – 3 bromadiolone products available, it appears Resolv has a very high attraction rate to rats.   BUT…this seems to be true for all rodents found in the woods, parks or backyards.

Mice, rats, chipmunks and squirrels.  Little critters with very sharp teeth.

If you use a highly attractive bait in any plastic station, you may have secondary poisoning.  Always?  Of course not.

Can you give a 100% guarantee this will never ever happen though?   Nope.

If you put a T-rex in an Evo then no problems right?  Wrong.   If you’ve never seen a squirrel in a T-rex you haven’t been around long enough.

But you then have the problem of daily inspections and re-setting traps.

Do we prepare ourselves for any situation? Nope.

This is where we lack in our planning – the what if’s.  And being prepared for worse case scenarios.  Even if it never happens.

How many of us know what to say to the homeowner if there’s a dead squirrel in the yard?  Does it happen?  Maybe one in a million, but how do you address?

Does anyone have the information Lipha provides on secondary poisoning always on hand?  A copy in their truck?  What to do and how to react?  Poison control center numbers?

If you prepare for the Worse case scenario, you prepared for anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVO and RESOLVE. Too good to be true?

I’ve beat this dead horse before, until it turned into horse jerky, but a word from the wise (me!)

Tamper Proof – nothing can get inside   (like my brain)

Tamper Resistant – kinda holds ’em back  (like my diet)

Tamper Evident – red flag goes up once it’s been tampered with (like my hand in the cookie jar)

I really believe that someone (the name doesn’t ring a BELL) did such a good job of fear-mongering and confusing the regulations with marketing that PMP’s truly believe that if you use an Evo Express you have nothing to fear on non-targets getting at the bait.

“But Bobby baby…..it’s Tier 1!”

But what the hell does that mean???  Entrust our Ottawa government types to write mis-leading legislation.  Tier 1 in Canada applies to Domestic products, BUT they included the language on all Commercial labels.

Through it all though, the onus lies on one person and one person only.

You.  The individual who puts the bait and stations out.  Neither Bell or Lipha will jump in.

So

Read the top of the station:   Tamper Resistant

Now, add to that a regulation that only allows bromadiolone to be used outdoors, and you have two options:   Contrac Blok or the new and exciting Resolv!  (forget Maki – everyone else has – even the supplier)

BUT….Resolv is so attractive to rodents it might even attract chippies (I’m turning Canadian), squirrels and beavers  (hey government inspectors…this is humor in poor taste remember).

So imagine a highly attractive bait in an indestructible bait station.  Perfect right????

Tamper resistant…

So the simple moral of this story???

You need to think, and think hard, on how and where you use a bait, and what you put it in.

Is there a total squirrel/chippie/beaver tamper free option?     Sure, let the rats have their freedom!