by Rod_outbak » 25 Sep 2018, 7:36 am
Daddybang,
If you still use steel-jawed traps(in QLD at least), you are supposed to use Strychnine on the jaws, to kill the animal ASAP. Recommended method is a cloth wired to the jaws; impregnated with Strychnine. Some of the other states still have this requirement.
I HATE using Strychnine, as it is too indiscriminate, and any animal(or human!) who gets trapped will likely be poisoned/killed. Some states have now banned the use of steel jawed traps, and we havent used steel-jawed traps here for over 15 years. However, there are some people who say that dogs can escape rubber-jawed traps, and so still use steel. I think this is a load of garbage; we have caught dogs that would have lost part of the foot, but escaped, if we'd been using steel-jaws. Also, steel-jaws will shatter legs, and the animal will often gnaw the shattered limb off, and escape.
We regularly find REALLY pissed-off sheep, pigs and roos in the rubber-jawed traps; alive and well(though seriously annoyed).
Strychnine will kill just about anything, with the possible exception of goannas, wheras properly applied 1080 is vastly more specific on the animals it will kill.
Another commonly used poison is CSSP, which has a phosphorus base, and burns the guts out. I remember many years ago, seeing sheep carcasses that had been baited wih CSSP, had mummified in the cold winter weather, and a 2mm shower of rain had caused the carcass to catch fire.
Scarey stuff, but still available, if you sign the poisons register at your local Ag supplies store.
It is supposed to be only used for pigs, but it is another very non-discriminate poison.
The thing about Lanate, is where 1080, CSSP and Strychnine all require an audit trail to purchase & use, Lanate would be an over-the-counter chemical that mightnt even need a signature for, and would be used regularly in that farming/orchard country around Mildura.
MANY years ago, there used to be a Fly-Strike chemical on the market called Luci-Jet. It was available for ~50 years, and phased out somewhere in the early 1980's. Luci-jet was often (illegally) used to bait carcasses, to nail crows, eagles, pigs, etc. The thing was, the amount of secondary and tertiary poisoning was off the chart. You could find animals dead from eating the crows that ate the dead pig that died from eating the freaking baited carcass!
REALLY nasty stuff.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the key chemical in Lanate, is the same chemical in Luci-Jet. Not likely to be the same concentration, but still something we dont want used incorrectly.
As bad a rap as 1080 gets, it is a far more target-specific and ecologically-responsible poison to use. Part of the reason for this, is there is much greater control over it's use, and it's biodegradable.
I still hope for the day where poisons can be a thing of history, but the feral populations across Australia dont suggest that will be any time soon.
[About the only thing less discriminate than Strychnine, were Dingo-Cannons, which were just sawn-off 12-gauge shotguns on a trip-wire. Banned well over a century ago, after they lost a few boundary-riders whilst fixing the fence... I'm not a big fan of Dingo-cannons, either!]
Cheers,
Rod.
---------------------
Sharing the extreme love with cats in Outback QLD