You never want to find wildlife living inside your home. Whether you are dealing with rodents, insects, or something else, finding out you have an infestation is stressful. Wildlife infestations can spread disease, lead to property damage, and cost a pretty penny to fix.
Your first reaction to finding animals in your home might be to buy products containing poison to eliminate them. While poison can solve rodent and insect infestations, it might not be your best option. There are tons of risks to using poison for wildlife control, including accidentally harming your children or pets.
Another risk of using poison to control rodents or other animals is that the poison takes time to work. Let’s say you have mice or rats in your home. If they ingest poison from a bait station, they might crawl inside your walls to die, leaving you with a horrid smell and an expensive repair.
Because there are so many risks to using poison, it’s better to contact a wildlife control company that uses a humane approach. At Nuisance Wildlife Rangers, we never use poison to control infestations. Instead, we use live traps to remove and relocate animals back into their natural habitats.
Risks of Using Poison to Control Wildlife Infestations
Poison is the most commonly used form of rat or mouse and insect infestation control. When you buy pest control products from the store, you are likely purchasing some form of poison. While these poisons can be effective, using them comes with risk.
The dangers of using poison to control wildlife infestations include:
Harming Your Family
If you have small children in the home, using poison to solve an infestation can be incredibly dangerous. You have to place the poisonous baits in places where the animals frequent. Sometimes, these locations are also accessible to children.
Exposure to anticoagulant rodenticide can lead to serious bleeding among children. Your child could have nosebleeds, blood in the urine, and internal bleeding.[1] They could also develop symptoms like confusion, lethargy, pale skin, and shock.
In other words, using poison is simply not worth it. If your child gets their hands on poisoned rat or insect bait, they could experience life-threatening effects.
Accidentally Poisoning Pets
Both household pets and wildlife are vulnerable to poison. If you place poisoned bait throughout your house, your pets will likely be able to access them. Dogs or cats that get hold of insect or rodenticide poison will need emergency veterinarian care.
Animals eat all sorts of things they find on the ground. If your dog or cat has ever gotten into the trash, eaten something on a walk, or behaved like a personal vacuum, using poison to resolve an infestation could cause your pet to become ill.
Symptoms of rodenticide poisoning in pets may include bleeding, vomiting, weakness, and difficulty breathing.[2] The severity of your pet’s symptoms will depend on how much poison they ingested and how quickly they receive care.
Animals Dying in Walls
While poison can kill rodents like rats and mice, it doesn’t always happen immediately. Using poison can backfire, as sometimes rodents will crawl inside walls to die. If a rodent dies inside your walls, you’ll have to have someone break into the wall to remove it.
In other words, using poison can worsen the infestation and increase the amount of money you have to pay. Your house will smell like a deceased animal until you can get someone to remove the rodent from your walls. Then, you’ll have to pay for repairs as well.
There Are Better Options Out There
Insect and rat poisons might be the most widely available solutions, but they aren’t the best option. Because of the risks involved, it is best to use natural and non-fatal solutions to wildlife infestations.
At Nuisance Wildlife Rangers, we offer a humane and ethical approach to wildlife control. Instead of using poison to remove animals, we trap them using bait. Our traps do not harm or kill the animals.
Once the animal is trapped, we will remove them from your home and relocate them. They will either go back into the wild, where they can contribute to the local ecosystem, or a wildlife sanctuary if they are injured or sick.
Get Connected to a Humane Wildlife Control Company
If you are dealing with a wildlife infestation at your home or business, it’s time to seek professional help. While buying poison at your local store might seem like the easy fix, it can put you, your family, and your pets at risk. Instead, contact a wildlife control company that uses humane methods for wildlife removal.
Nuisance Wildlife Rangers is a full-time wildlife and animal removal company that extends its services to both commercial and residential clients. We have a great team of animal trappers that will work tirelessly to ensure that your home is free of any nuisance critters. We do not use any harmful products, and we will focus on humane methods to exterminate the animals. Our trappers are experienced and will explain every stage of the wildlife removal process. We are committed to ensuring that your home is safe and fully protected from the invasion of animals.
Contact Nuisance Wildlife Rangers today to learn more about how we solve wildlife infestations without using poison.
References:
- The National Library of Medicine (NLM): Rodenticide Toxicity
- Merck Veterinary Manual: Rodenticide Poisoning
