Big Creek Farm

Nature is therapeutic.

Winter is around the corner, and the rodents may be coming in to see you! Please, please, please, DON’T USE RODENT POISON, or INSECTICIDES! Being poisoned to d...eath is a horrible way for any animal to die. Many times, using poisons has unintended consequences. We see more and more secondary poisoning of wild animals. When you poison a prey animal, its natural predators and scavengers may also get that poison, and suffer. An example: you put rodent poison in your basement and the mouse takes the bait. Then, while it is slowly dying a miserable death, it goes out in search of water, and is caught by a hawk, owl, snake, or domestic cat. When they eat the mouse, they get some of the poison. They may just get very sick, or they may die, depending on many variables. If the mouse simply dies in your yard and decomposes without being eaten, it turns into fertilizer for grass and weeds. Those tender new shoots are what deer love to eat. The seed heads on that grass feed the song and game birds. Guess what there is a thing called root uptake. That’s how the minerals in the soil are redistributed within the plant. (That is one reason garden vegetables taste different, depending on where they are grown) We are now finding detectable levels of rodenticides and insecticides in deer and game birds. That means that people who eat game animals are getting trace levels of these poisons So what is the problem with poisoning hawks, owls, and snakes? Those three groups eat more rodents than you can imagine Ask any rehabilitator who feeds orphaned owls while they are learning to survive The numbers are staggering! In short, we need those predatory animals to keep the NATURAL BALANCE, so we aren’t overrun with rodents, and end up poisoning the whole human race! If you have a rodent problem, use snap traps. They are, in my opinion, safer, and more humane. BUT DON’T USE GLUE TRAPS! FYI: Screech owls and other smaller raptors eat a whole lot of bugs. It’s the same story, but with insecticides The following video shows one of many barred owls that come in suffering from rodent poisoning. Toxicology tests are very expensive, and can make a clinic go broke fast, so we usually diagnose by symptoms. Honestly, most birds will probably die before we get the results back anyway. This owl died. Not many make it.

Through the lens of a fallen Leaf Photographer: @WilliamSmith

Mesmerizing! No wonder we make a wish when we blow the seeds away.