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+--- Thread: rats (/showthread.php?tid=13549)
RE: rats - Guest - 04-30-2014
Rats, I can't figure out how farm animals carry the or contact the Lepto disease first. The rats seem like the blame for transporting, yet its mostly animals like pigs, cows, sheep and goats that have it first. I wonder why Lepto is found mostly in poverty stricken areas like Puna?. Is it because farm land is usually poverty land anymore?. Can or could, a pile of say pig carcasses sitting in a muddy area or stag net water really be the culprit of such diseases that we blame on the rat?. Rats are everywhere and can get anywhere, that is why they are likely to transport it. what as a community can we do so we breed less lepto infected areas like Waipio valley, shipman, Kiholo bay's, wonder if they have large farms above these places? Or if high volumes of fertilizer could decompose or break down in or on a farm that could start the process?. Fire back and let me have it folks.
RE: rats - unknownjulie - 04-30-2014
Mimosa, thankyou so much! Will use your formula! Great idea.
RE: rats - csgray - 04-30-2014
When I checked the CDC website at this link http://www.cdc.gov/leptospirosis/infection/index.html it said that many animals can carry the bacterium, and can have no symptoms, for anywhere from months to years. Contact with urine or other bodily fluids, or soil or water that had been contaminated, can lead to infection. So when something that is a carrier pees on grass, and then a cow eats that grass, a gardener then takes the cow's poop and fertilizes their garden, and now their garden has been contaminated with lepto. The list of animals that can be carriers was longer than I expected. The CDC website has a lot more information than this on that site.
I think it is such an issue for Hawaii because we have no freeze period that can "clean" things up and give us all a break from the spread of the bacteria.
Carol
RE: rats - Delta9r - 04-30-2014
I am against poison because poisoned rats can be eaten by our hawks. Buteo Solitarius was taken off the endangered list and is now considered threatened.
I love watching the 'Io fly above my place. I have a few big Ohi'a where 'Io sometimes nest.
I love their calls too.
Then there are owls. I wouldn't want a poisoned rat to end up poisoning an owl, even the introduced owls.
I use a variation of the bucket trap using a 5 or 6 gallon bucket half filled with water upon which a layer of popcorn is added to present the illusion of a solid surface. Rats crawl in but they don't get out.
"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."
RE: rats - steve1 - 04-30-2014
I understand people being anti-poison but it really helps if you understand science too. Rats cannot throw up which is why all rat poison is laced with strong emetics (induce puking).
Not sure if hawks and owls will eat dead animals or not but I would love to know the answer if anyone has knowledge or experience.
Pigs also carry leptospirosis. It's a spirochete bacterium sort of like a corkscrew. Syphilis is another spirochete bacterium and there wasn't really any good treatment until penicillin was introduced.
Lepto loves our warm, wet environment and becomes more of an issue when it rains a lot and water puddles up. It can survive well in places like the warm ponds where contaminated fresh water meets warm sea water. Don't enter with cuts or scratches.
RE: rats - Mimosa - 04-30-2014
I have always called the warm ponds down puna coast side , " the bacteria ponds " and for very good reason.
Waipio valley is famous for lepto and all along Hamakua coast as well.Not just poor areas where EBT is the preferred method to get grinds.
RE: rats - unknownjulie - 04-30-2014
I never even thought of lepto in the hotponds. Now that is actually scary. The staff bacteria is all over everything already.
RE: rats - Radiopeg - 05-01-2014
Glad to know this is a traditional rat time of year. Between our traps and the presents my cat has left me, we did about 15 rats in the last three weeks of April. Now we have traps everywhere. Between the rat and the ants, I felt like I was living in a vermin sanctuary.
Peace and long life
RE: rats - unknownjulie - 05-01-2014
Ah yes, I can relate. And don't forget the roaches and slugs. I have been on a bit of mission of late to get rid of all of them.
RE: rats - birdmove - 05-01-2014
Maybe I need to get another Ratzapper. Someone borrowed mine and never brought it back. They work well. I can't afford a night vision rifle scope for an airgun.
Jon in Keaau/HPP