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Mice plague and bird deaths

To: Tony Keene <>, "" <>
Subject: Mice plague and bird deaths
From: David James <>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 18:41:51 -0700 (PDT)
My info may be out of dait, but I thought the main issue with bird deaths from 
rodenticides is secondary poisoning after birds eat several rodents that have 
been poioned with brodificum baits (e.g. talon). The baits are in wax blocks 
and birds don't tend to eat them. The rodents are slow to die and therefore 
easy prey. Owls in particualr tend to eat the rodents whole. There is a 
cumulative affect as the toxin remains active in the carcassess of the rodents. 
I doubt that a bitter additive would change this scenario.  
David James, 
Sydney

==============================

From: Tony Keene <>
To: 
Sent: Monday, 30 May 2011 4:04 PM
Subject: Mice plague and bird deaths

Just been doing a spot of research and I wonder why the companies that make the 
mouse and rat poison don't include trace amounts of denatonium benzoate - 
apparently birds can detect it at much lower concentrations than rodents. If it 
was included in the formulation, it would deter birds from eating the posion 
baits and might even be present in rodent corpses in enough concentration to 
deter birds from eating those as well. In case you're wondering what the stuff 
is, it's also known as Bitrex and is the bitterest substance known - 10 parts 
per million can make something inedible to people and they use it in antifreeze 
to stop kids drinking it.
Cheers,

Tony




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