Latest news with #ratcontrol
CBC
10-05-2025
- General
- CBC
75 years of Alberta's mission to keep rats at bay
Social Sharing Twice a year, a patrol team scrutinizes barns, straw bales and grain storage bins along a 600-kilometre stretch of the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary. They're looking for rats, continuing a 75-year mission to stop the rodents from making themselves at home in the province. "My grandfather," says Lincoln Poulin, the president of Poulin's Pest Control, "was known as the man that killed 10 million rats." Napoleon Poulin invented a rodenticide called Poulin's Rat Doom and was a key figure in the early days of Alberta's rat control program, established in 1950 after Norway rats were discovered on an Alberta farm. The rodents, thought to originate in China, first arrived on the east coast of North America in 1775 and gradually spread west, travelling about 24 kilometres per year and arriving in Saskatchewan in the 1920s. By 1959, the number of infestations in Alberta increased to 573. But after 1959, they plummeted, reaching zero by 2003, according to the Alberta government. Outbreaks happen — but not often Karen Wickerson, pest specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, administers the Alberta Rat Control Program — meaning she's known in some circles as Alberta's rat lady. If a rat is found, the patrol sets up traps, bait stations and cameras. The goal is to get the rodents before they start a family and spread, said Wickerson. The rat control zone stretches along Alberta's eastern boundary between Cold Lake, Alta., to the U.S. border with Montana. The patrol's focus is on eastern Alberta because it's hard for rats to get over the mountains in the west, Montana has a very low rat population in the south and the north is too cold and sparsely populated, said Wickerson. WATCH | Alberta rat patrol keeps an eye out for unwanted rodents: How Alberta's rat patrol helps maintain province's rat-free status 5 days ago Duration 2:17 While there are occasional outbreaks — like the 2023 outbreaks at two recycling plants in Calgary — they're rare. Usually, rats come into Alberta by chance. "They can be hitchhikers on a shipment of grain," said Shelby Oracheski, agricultural fieldman with the Municipal District of Wainwright, which is about 50 kilometres west of the Saskatchewan boundary. "With any invasive species, the earlier you detect them, the more effective you can be to get rid of them." The problem with rats Bryan Skinner's family started their mixed grain and beef farm in 1950 — the same year Alberta's rat program got started — near the village of Chauvin, about 10 kilometres west of the Saskatchewan boundary. Without Alberta's rat patrol program, the rodents could cause a lot of damage to his farm, he said. "Anything time a rat wrecks your feed, you obviously can't feed it to your livestock, so it all becomes waste," he said. It can go 15 years between rat sightings on his farm, said Skinner. Rats will chew on electrical wiring, causing damage to homes and other structures. They may also carry up to 50 different pathogens and parasites that can be passed to humans. According to a study published earlier this year in Science Advances, rats in the United States cause an estimated $27 billion US in damages annually to infrastructure, agricultural yields and contaminated food supplies. While Alberta does promote itself as being rat-free, it does have a native rat — the bushy-tailed woodrat, which is also known as a packrat. It's found in the Rocky Mountains and southern parts of the province. Packrats can damage buildings by constructing stinky nests, said Wickerson, but they are not as much of a concern as the invasive Norway rat. Property owners can choose to control packrats, but Norway rats must be controlled according to Alberta's laws. It's illegal to keep pet rats in Alberta. The world is becoming rattier Today, Norway rats are found on every continent outside of Antarctica. A recent study published in Science Advances, found rat populations are exploding globally in cities like Washington, D.C. The study found climate change and a growing human population were behind the increasing number of rats. Rats thrive in warmer conditions, the study noted, while human populations mean more garbage and homes for rats to live in. Cities with fewer green spaces also saw a greater increase in rats. In 2023, New York City appointed a rat czar to tackle the problem. However, some places have managed to become rat-free in recent years. In 2018, South Georgia got rid of all its rats after having them for 250 years. It's known as the world's largest rodent eradication project. The key to Alberta's triumph was getting rid of rats when they first arrived, said Wickerson. "We can't put out little signs or rat fences at the border," she said. "The thing is when they do get in, we don't let them establish."
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Predator Free Wellington faces $1.75m annual shortfall
Predator Free Wellington operational field support officer Craig Keen. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Predator Free Wellington is facing a shortfall of $1.75 million annually due to a decrease in funding from next year. The group has successfully eradicated rats from the Miramar peninsula and turned its attention toward the central city, hopeful it can persevere. On Wednesday, the team showed National Party MP Catherine Wedd, who chairs Parliament's environment committee, and the media around its Wilton-based workshop. Operational field support officer Craig Keen said they were always chasing that last one percent of rats. "There's the easy ones that you can get, and then it's the hard ones at the very end," he said. "There's all these different tricks, and over time, it's been developed - we've borrowed from other places, but we've also developed some of our own things." Fix and Fogg peanut butter and Best Foods mayonnaise are a delicious treat for rats, ferrets, stoats and weasels. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Scattered on benchtops around the workshop were chew cards infused with Fix and Fogg peanut butter, and Best Foods mayo - a delicious treat for rats, ferrets, stoats and weasels. "Things that we use the most, that is, the most effective kill - poison." Bridificoum was placed in lockable plastic boxes, in the form of chunks on kebab sticks meant to be nibbled, or pellets, which the rat could take back to its burrow and "eat at its own leisure". There were chew sticks infused with bio markers, to track rats to their favourite spots, and Goodnature traps, which automatically reset after each kill, making hard-to-reach places easier to service. Project director James Willcocks said after success in Miramar, phase two, which was currently underway, expanded the trapping area west across the city, from the CBD down to Island Bay. Project director James Willcocks. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "With Miramar being the first phase of our project, that was all around proof-of-concept, and trying to figure out how to do this stuff for the very first time, because it's never been done anywhere in the world before," he said. "Now that we've made that recipe, our role is to refine that, so we need to harder, we need to go faster, and therefore more cheaply." Ninety percent of the organisation's budget went towards field operations - with more than 11,000 bait stations and traps deployed, the team had conducted 74,000 trap checks and 91,000 bait station checks in the past year. There were 140,000 chew cards monitored, two rat detector dogs Kimi and Rapu, and their handler Sally, and 520 cameras in the field producing 389,536 images. Some of the toolds used. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone But from next year, the organisation faced a shortfall in funding. Its work programme cost $4m a year, dropping to $3m in 2028, as it became more efficient. In previous years, the government had provided funding through the Crown-owned company Predator Free 2050 of $2m annually - but come the 2025/2026 financial year, that would drop to $500,000 a year. Rob Forlong, chief executive of Predator Free 2050 Limited, said the situation was not unique. "With the conclusion of the Jobs for Nature and Provincial Growth Fund programmes, PF2050 Limited's funding pool has reduced by approximately two-third. This means that six projects, including Predator Free Wellington, continue to be funded, albeit at a lower level than previously." Funding would conclude for the remaining 10 projects PF2050 had partnered with, and to minimise the impact, it had been working with the affected projects and a professional fundraiser to help them raise money from other sources. Funding for Predator Free Wellington also came from the city and regional councils, the NEXT Foundation - which was also winding up - plus other smaller other grants and revenue. Predator Free Wellington's funding shortfall. Photo: SUPPLIED / PREDATOR FREE WELLINGTON Willcocks said: "We're fine for this financial year, and then into next year and ongoing, we're facing a deficit of $1.75 million annually - and that's at our current rate of spend." "Obviously we've got that plan to expand into larger areas, and keep the momentum up." The government, through the Department of Conservation, released discussion documents this week to garner public feedback on a number of questions, including the future of Predator Free 2050. One of the draft 2030 goals was to eradicate rats, mustelids and possums from one major city - and Wellington was well on its way. Another topic for discussion was whether to add mice, hedgehogs and feral cats to the list of target species - which Willcocks pointed out would require more tools, and more money. Craig Keen and Catherine Wedd at Predator Free Wellington's workshop. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Catherine Wedd told RNZ it was amazing to see the knowledge and data Predator Free Wellington could share with the rest of the country, and the government was committed to a predator free future. "That's the outcome that we want to achieve, and of course we're committed to protecting our environment and our biodiversity." But she would not be drawn on whether any more funding was on the cards. Predator Free Wellington is facing a shortfall of $1.75 million annually. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Conservation Minister Tama Potaka told RNZ earlier this week: "We need to ensure that the good work that's taken place over the last few years, for example Predator Free, and some of the Jobs for Nature projects and others, is continued and we don't lose ground." New funding was something "that would be deliberated on over successive budgets". Feedback on the discussion documents would be taken into account. Department of Conservation deputy director-general for public affairs Sia Aston said Jobs for Nature had always been time limited. "Predator Free 2050 is critical to addressing the threat of introduced predators to our unique nature, and Predator Free Wellington has achieved amazing conservation outcomes for the region." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
