Public comment on an environmental impact statement for a plan to drop more than a ton of poison grain pellets on the Farallon Islands to eradicate the invasive house mice population there will be heard by the California Commission when it meets Wednesday in San Luis Obispo.
The EIS for the project outlines three alternatives for dealing with rodents on the islands located more than 20 miles outside the Golden Gate and under management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
One alternative is to take no action at all to deal with the mouse population other than current minimal efforts such as spring traps.
The preferred alternative would involve using a helicopter for the “aerial broadcast of rodent bait,” the rodenticide brodifacoum, along with “hand baiting, bait stations, and traps in order to benefit native seabirds
and restore natural ecosystem processes on the South Farallon Islands” according to the commission staff report.
The alternative is preferred over a third option using a different poison because it is fatal with only one feeding, rather than several.
Application would be over three weeks during the final quarter of the year, “scheduled to occur outside seabird and marine mammal breeding seasons and when most wildlife populations are near annual minimums,” according to the staff report.
“We expect that eradicating invasive mice will benefit native seabirds, amphibians, terrestrial invertebrates, plants, and wilderness quality, and will help restore natural ecosystem processes on the islands,”
the report says in recommending the alternative. “The South Farallon Islands have sustained ecological damage over many decades from the presence of invasive mice. Eradicating house mice would eliminate the last remaining invasive vertebrate species on the Refuge, thereby enhancing the recovery of this unique and sensitive ecosystem.”
Many of the comments submitted on the proposal are highly critical.
“Undoubtedly the poison will travel up the food chain; not only killing the intended mice, but also the entire predator/carnivore community living with the coastal zone,” wrote Kim Fitts, a wildlife biologist and
environmental consultant. “This is exactly how the food web is destroyed for generations.”
The California Coastal Commission will hear public comments on the EIS when it meets at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Embassy Suites, 333 Madonna Road in San Luis Obispo.
The EIS can be reviewed at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Farallon_Islands/resource_management.html.
They’ll outlive all of us.
I keep thinking there is an easier solution to this such as a few cats, etc. or some other rodent predator. There must be a water supply if the rodents can live there.
My first thought was turning a bunch of cat loose, but unless the cats are all neutered and spayed, they will have the same problem with the cats over running the islands. Setting traps is a better idea, but I have a question, some of the marine life, such as seagulls and sea lions that will die as a consequence of the poison are protected by law. Are Fish and Wildlife exempt from that law?
Tweet @ElonMusk to contribute tesla tech to create an autonomous mouse hunter. Brand it as Auto-No-Mouse.
IMHO
They will never get rid of all the mice. Poison won’t get them all & it will kill whatever eats the mice too. They might decimate the mouse population, but they will never get them all. Introducing a predator (like cats) would also affect the bird population. Constant trapping on a large scale will help reduce the mouse population, but that’s about it. The simplest method is to bury a deep plastic bucket up to it’s rim, or place it where mice can access it & make sure there is mouse bait like grain or nuts in there… mice will jump in but not be able to get out. When the food is gone they will eat each other, but eventually all will die.
No, I’m not a exterminator or authority on the subject, but it works, really.
OMG, I actually agree with with Dr. Jellyfinger on something.
It would need to be a really tall bucket! After a few bodies piled up it wouldn’t work too well. For extra measure it could have something like this on top; https://tinyurl.com/y2sknl9z or this if they’re larger than the average mice; https://tinyurl.com/y5utrg77 they wouldn’t need a ramp on either, as it would be sunk into the rock. Or maybe just drill a long shaft. Someone would need to apply the peanut butter though.
Geez, you sound like that James Bond villain from Skyfall.
That roller is cool Silva… I found a video too… it works better with water in the bucket.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI
Wheeee (splash)!! Yeah, it does work better with water. Without the water you could relocate them nearby a hawk or an owl’s favorite roost. Some of them are just too smart. Pretty cool though.
Oooo, hubba hubba Javier Bardem.😉
IMHO, they should blow all the “mice” into the ocean and let the sharks and seals eat them. If you laugh at this, I don’t blame you. But poisoning a potential food source is asinine.
Victor and peanut butter should end the problem. Works for me every time.
…who is Victor?
Ricardoh, I commend you sir, for not using poisons which kill the birds of prey and other predators down the line, who just think it was the easiest rodent they ever caught!
Justifiable Victor is the maker of the best mouse and rat traps in the world. Quick and deadly. Available everywhere.
Silva I never use poison on anything. I think you are correct about the birds of prey. something will eat those mice.
Two thumbs up for Victor!
I got two rats at one time with one of their snap straps. Who says the second rat gets the peanut butter?
Bad N You beat me never got two in one trap at the same time. About twenty years ago I had an invasion of roof rats that somehow got into my garage at night. Not knowing how many there were I put out one trap. Got one that night and one for the next six nights. After that there were no more.
I once caught a wee little tiny lower mandible in a Victor. The whole thing was there under the bar, it wasn’t broken off. It was apparent the mouse had purposefully disconnected from it and left it behind. It was 40+ years ago, and the last time I ever used a Victor. Shudder.
I used a humane trap, but then relocating them becomes a problem. What I read said not to take them outside and release them because they’d be back inside before you. I read that after I did that and they were right!
Please do not use poison! (1) Other animals will directly eat the poison bait and die. (2) Animals will die from secondary poisoning by eating the poisoned dead mice. (3) As @Dawg says, poison will inevitably make its way into the ocean, poisoning marine life. (4) And lastly, it’s cruel.
Traps or the introduction of a predator, as others have mentioned, is humane.
My other question is: Why did the Coastal Commission let this mice problem get to such a crisis before addressing the issue?
Poison always causes collateral damage.
Mice exterminating robots, mebbe?
Lets see, will be a “group” decision and governmental agencies are involved. Plus area effected is an isolated ecosystem . . . .
What could possibly go wrong.
Wonder how blame will divided up and assigned when this little fiasco fails.
Unless kill rate is 100%, population will reassert itself in short order.
Mouse gestation period roughly 19 – 21 days, females are sexually maturity at 6 – 7 weeks, give birth 5 – 10 times per year to 3 – 14 young.
Post was as so many are, . . . humor.with a hint of sarcasm.
Ronald Reagan was very correct when he commented about government employees, “The best minds are not in government.
If any were, business would steal them away.”
Interact with electrical, mechanical and software engineers daily and with all that education they’re supposed to be smart. Theere’s more than a couple I wouldn’t trust to automate a flush toilet.
The Farallons have no land based predators except a few burrowing owls descended from vagrants. They could be easily replaced although the species are not natural, although it might make sense because the rodent population will never become zero at the hands of humans.
Remember the Galapagos? Cats were introduced to control the vagrant rat population which it did, but cats became the problem and they then had to be eradicated.
And Hawaii and the Mongooses.. It was a disaster.
And in Australia, rabbits and the cane toad.
Snakes on Guam.
Crawdads in the U.K.
Crawdads in Lake Tahoe.
Really? Well leave it to me to know about England’s mudbug problem and I never even heard about Tahoe’s woes.
The little guys are stimulating algae growth in the Lake!
Last I heard they were interbreeding with the beautiful blue ones and by now they my all be red.
If a regular person took it upon themselves to control the rat population on the Farallons and spread out 2,000lbs of rat poison they would be put in prison and heavily fined.
Took all of twenty seconds to search and find from about three years ago,
‘ContraPest Rodent Control Product Earns EPA Approval’
“… managing rodent pest populations through reducing fertility.”
https://www.pctonline.com/article/senestech-contrapest-rodent-product-epa-approval/
https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2016/08/17/rat-birth-control-made-flagstaff-company-gets-epas-approval/88926218/