Subject: Undeterred by Poison, `Super Rats' Live On-------
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 07:41:04 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State
of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Carol Browner browner.carol@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker,
I thought you might like to read an article entitled: Undeterred by Poison, `Super Rats' Live On
- Yoko Fujisaki / Asahi Shimbun 16jan01
- The hardy strain of roof rat that inhabits Tokyo is multiplying,
leading some to speculate that a `super rat' race is on.
In the past few years, families living in different parts
of Tokyo have noticed an increase in damage from rats. Problems reported to city ward offices and public health
centers include rats chewing up clothes in closets, stealing food from
kitchens and damaging gas pipes. The Health and Welfare Ministry estimated
there were 6,325 cases of rat infestations in 1988. Ten years later, that
number had bounded sharply to 34,097.
One conspicuous change was that roof rats (Rattus rattus) are on the
increase. These 15 to 20 centimeter rodents are smaller than Norway rats, the
brown variety usually found slinking about in sewers or shrubberies. Roof rats
are identifiable by their long tails, which have a scale-like pattern.
Roof rats have long been a menace in commercial areas of
the city, but in the 1970s more of the pests began chewing up office wiring
and even gas hoses in restaurants, sometimes leading to gas leaks.
Now roof rats are invading residential areas. Their proliferation has
been possible because of their strong resistance to rat poison. Unlike the
regular Norway rats, which have little resistance to rat poison, roof rats are
much tougher. In laboratory tests, roof rats have survived on a diet of
only rat poison for more than a month. These ``super rats'' in some cases have
even lived on the poison for hundreds of days.
A research institute in Chiba's Chuo Ward is studying the
habits of super rats. It's parent company, Ikari Corp. (headquartered in
Shinjuku), specializes in pest extermination.
Late last year, the institute carried out a study of roof rats caught
in Tokyo's Ota Ward. Eleven of the rats were fed nothing but water and rat
poison; of these, six survived for over a month.
The institute also studied a few roof rats caught in the Ogasawara
Islands. While the island rats were equal to the super rats in terms of size
and ability to chew up things, they didn't have the slightest bit of
resistance to rat poison. ``Because
the roof rats with no resistance to the rat poison have all died off, only the
ones with strong, resistant DNA have managed to survive and multiply, and
their offspring have become the super rats,'' said institute head Tsutomu
Tanigawa. So the more we rely
on rat poison to rid ourselves of these pests, the more chemical-resistant
super rats we end up breeding.
Luckily, there is a solution, say experts: ``Make your environment less
hospitable to rats.'' But don't be fooled into thinking that by keeping things
clean or by moving to a new building, you can avoid the pests. The rats don't
differentiate between cleanliness and filth. When they come to a building,
they decide to stay if they find material to build a nest or food to eat.
To avoid encouraging rats, use plastic storage containers and garbage
cans that have lids. Store staples like rice and other foods in airtight
containers or in a refrigerator. ``There were cases when the rats have gone
away simply because the people changed their clothing storage boxes from
cardboard ones to plastic ones,'' said Akiko Kunihiro, an environmental health
controller at the public health center in Shinagawa Ward.
Late last year, freelance writer Hiromi Kanemaru
published the book ``Super Rats, the Horror of the City Beasts'' (Tokuma
Shoten). In addition to describing extermination procedures and the damage
caused by the pests, the book included a comprehensive guide compiled by the
Shinagawa Ward office on how to reduce infestations and exterminate roof rats.
The book attracted much public interest.
Kanemaru listed several possible reasons why roof rats have propagated
so successfully. These include overcrowded residential areas in the absence of
well-thought-out city plans; the anonymous nature of city neighbors and the
disappearance of nature and farmlands. ``Super
rats serve as a warning to our cities. Urban areas are distorting nature as
people come to care only about their own convenience. ``The very existence
of super rats is like a red light asking, `Is human civilization really OK?'''
said Kanemaru.
source: http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0116/asahi011611.html
17jan01
Well Mr. Helliker, It is simple to destroy (resistant)
pest problems - if you do not use any of your "registered" synthetic
pesticide POISONS. I have killed
rats with my "Walk the Plank" traps, with Budweiser Light, with
Chocolate Ex-Lax, with carbon dioxide and many other safe and far more
effective alternatives. Why do you insist that we continue to POISON the world
and create SUPER PEST PROBLEMS, rather than allow the use of safe and far more
effective alternatives? I ask
that question every day and I have never received any intelligent answer. So, once again, I
ask you: "When will it be
"legal" (in your opinion) to use safe and effective (unregistered)
alternatives to actually control pest problems in California?
Respectfully, Stephen
L. Tvedten
[Editor's Note: We are pretty certain that the poison will still kill
people, as always.]
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