D-con Gone

I am the last to learn that the rodent poison D-con is gone because of federal regulators who pressured the company. The company actually gave up in 2014. This product could be used safely by humans without special care as to eyes or hands. The company has switched over to a new poison within a trap inaccessible to pets. It’s more expensive and more difficult to use. In one version, a mouse has to enter, eat, and then exit. I doubt that a rat can fit in the opening. I do not know how effective this will prove to be. The directions on its use are formidable. One instruction says that it takes two hands to open the trap up. I didn’t buy this overpriced and challenging-to-use item. I do not need any more products to struggle with. I already use a wrench to open some bottles that are too tightly sealed. Batteries are enclosed in tough plastic that one cannot penetrate without a knife or scissors. After that, they present sharp edges; so you either keep the jagged package around or you transfer the batteries to some other container. Tamper-resistant bottles are a hassle. I no longer place the cap securely back on some items, because of the hassle to open them later. The feds have induced me to be less hygienic.

D-con was introduced in 1950. I used it in the late 50s for mice in my parents’ attic. In 1963, when a bunch of us students rented a flat, I was first to arrive. A rat ran out from behind the refrigerator. I set out some d-con and that problem was solved before we moved in. In the late 60s, rats began to appear in another apartment. D-con again solved the problem. In two more dwellings since then, d-con has solved mice problems. This product was valuable and simple to use. It was affordable.

One can buy a bulk rodenticide. It will require more care to use. The poisons are worse than d-con in terms of touching skin, eyes or inhaling. D-con had no such issues. How long before the feds take measures against even those products because some pets have been exposed, ate the stuff and died; or because people handle them badly? A few people use a product unsafely and all of us must pay. Does that make sense? Does it make sense that in getting rid of d-con, the feds push us into potentially more unsafe products?

This regulatory madness accelerated with a vengeance in 1972 with a national safety act. The higher prices that result hurt poor people much more than middle and upper-middle class people. Soccer moms want safety, and they want it delivered to them via government regulation. Edmunds (the car people) write “The following models are our picks for the 10 coolest vehicles for soccer moms for 2014. Our choices offer safety…” The regulations make us less safe. Search Google on “safety regulations make us less safe” to find support for this statement.

Some states restrict certain of these products from being shipped in. The exterminators love these bans and regulations. They want to be the ones that people call because they cannot kill the rodents themselves. Do you know what a house call from an exterminator costs?

My brother uses traps, the old-fashioned way.

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3:59 pm on February 22, 2017