Natural Neutralization

Thoughts from J. Bockman

While we're on the subject of pack rats, I thought I'd tell you about how I'm dealing with them.

I really don't like poison, unless it's a black widow spider that I can't squish with something big and heavy. I particularly don't like it when it involves a rat or rabbit or other, well, prey animal, because it's easy to inadvertently do a lot of harm. If we poison the prey animal we're also poisoning the predator who snaps up the staggering, or fallen over, rat/rabbit/squirrel. If we poison the predators, all we get is more of the prey. (Fewer carnivores to catch and eat the dumb ones…)

Last year my husband and I bought two humane traps, the kind that just catches and cages the animal. The basic idea we had: catch 'em, and drive 'em out to the desert. Humane and easy. Except that finding a patch of desert that really is just a patch of desert isn't easy at all.

There are remarkable people, and in at least two parts of Tucson, who rescue wild animals. They don't rescue them like we would rescue a lost puppy. In fact, it's illegal to keep a wild animal as a pet. These folks nurse them back to health and then release them back to the wild. And they're willing to take pack rats, in a way.

Yesterday my two pack rats went to the cause of helping a red-tailed hawk regain its health. I know some who might be horrified at the idea of deliberately delivering a creature to its doom. Of course, I know more who are horrified that I don't just kill them and be done with it. I personally feel this is a great solution. I think of it this way: the pack rats are playing their part in the eco-system…immediately. Another way to think of it might be: poison-free pest neutralization.