Wendy,
If the sparrows did use the dog ends for nesting material, they would
certainly have pest-free nests. Nicotine is a very effective
insecticide, and was widely used in home gardens. The low LD50 of
nicotine would make it a fairly hazardous nesting material.
Fortunately sparrows don't live long enough to be worried by the
carcinogens in those tarry butts.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
On 20/05/2009, at 2:55 PM, Wendy wrote:
If this is actually true (- I have trouble believing sparrows would
use cig
butts - but I guess my locals are well supplied with feathers from my
chooks! Round here (inner Melbourne) it is the Mynahs that collect
litter -
mostly plastic film, including lots of the plastic crap from cigarette
packages that grubby smokers also like to dump! to build their
nests) maybe
we have an alternative explanation for sparrow decline in UK -
Nicotine (and
all the other thousands of chemical nasties) poisoning of nest
building
birds and their chicks!!!
wm
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