# Snakes and Rat poison



## seanjbkorbett (Feb 24, 2010)

Hey guys!..i do alot of roofing work and help my brother install ducted aircons in houses..and i have noticed,that most houses and factory's have rat bait everywhere in the roofs and around the factory..as iam also aware,brisbane and goldcoast has a significant number of coastal carpet pythons and other arboreal species such as brown tree snakes, that inhabit peoples roofs and factory roofs due to the huge amount of rats and mice they can feed on!..and by seeying nealry everyhouse and factory iv worked at has rat and mice poison everywhere.. i was wondering,does this affect the snakes who prey upon these mice and rats..as im sure those baits would be deadly to snakes if they ate it..,so what affect does human rat and pest poisons have on these snakes??...does it affect the population of carpet pythons and brown tree snakes??..im sure it would kill alot fo snakes aswell as rats...i personally dont like rat and mice poisons at all beacuse i beleive it can infect the wildife that prey upon them......


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## Zoltag (Feb 24, 2010)

My thought would be that snakes would not be overly affected, as they arent normally carrion eaters (and any live rats / mice would clearly not have ingested large quantities of poison, unless they ingested it only very recently).

I think (and may be completely wrong here) that rat and mice baits have to use poison designed to be lethal only to the first ingester of the poison (ie, the rat / mouse breaks down the poison in a way that kills them, but renders the poison harmless), to ensure natives and the local environment is not negativly impacted.


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## Lewy (Feb 24, 2010)

If you use a rat bait call TOM CAT its meant to have a realy good non secondary kill. So if anything eats a rat or mouse after it has eaten tomcat it SHOULD be fine.. Sue My partner Is the safety officer at her work (DPI) and this is what all there rat stations have in them to minimise any after deaths to reptiles and birds


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