To the Editor:
Our rural former farm plot's chicken roost and carriage house serve as detached garages. Mice have caused us costly damage (several hundred to clean out heating ducts), and interior – trunk – damage to contents since our poison was used up after its banning. And this despite a half dozen baited traps we check daily.
In addition to a few mice weekly, we find voles – and in the past two months, two possums have been killed. Several traps have been dragged away by maimed animals. Is this what animal lovers wished to happen?
My observations over the years using poison pellets is mice frequently die almost immediately – I have found them inches away from bait. They also carry away pellets for future consumption – we regularly get odor, then flies, this way in our house and the garages. Maybe the less lethal poisons mandated before the ban were the problem with poisoned predators – impaired mice were easy prey.
There are continuing news articles about mice chewing on wire insulation causing expensive damage. Leaving cars outside shelter can still result in mouse infestations and increases car maintenance costs. On cold days, a garage can be 10 degrees warmer than outside – helping starting and warming the cab.
We fortunately are not plagued with rats – cities are, though. No rat poison either? They spread disease.
Farmers are required to use RoundUp “responsibly”. But God help him (or us) if he uses poison on mice? These one-size-fits-all laws passed to please fringe activists should be reviewed and in this case, repealed.
Alphonse I. Johnson
Lisbon