Thread: Decades of 1080….before and after

I've often wondered what the risk of TB in things like rats is - often seen them scavenging carcasses as well as the usual suspects like fruit, cereal, eggs, raw dairy products, water pipes etc etc. I've seen rats everywhere I've been in the bush - bloody worse than possums or deer. Also feral cats - they have the ideal traits to cart TB for a long way...

One of the things that isn't often mentioned with 1080 is that it is especially effective on invertebrates and amphibians, both of which are in short supply in a lot of areas. I have seen it mentioned as an area requiring further study in many reports, but as yet never seen an actual report on it and the likely effects on biodiversity in that section of the fauna. Every action has a consequence, and while saving native species is worth it there is a concern that we might be unknowingly doing damage at the other end.

One of the main objections to 1080 is the hugely political and financial nature of it and the neverending battle which seems to be a 'managed partial success' model to keep everyone thinking that we are winning this war and keeping on spending while we do it.

There are a lot of areas that have been dropped with 1080 only to have all the baits destroyed 3-5 days later with the next rain cycle, and a lot of the places that people quote as impossible to treat via ground methods are actually not that bad. Sure you are limited to carrying capabilities and it will be a long term input of labour and resources rather than a 2-day spray, pray, fly away job - but against that station-protected baits have the potential to maintain efficiacy for weeks if not months against in some cases days for topdressed applications.