By Malcolm Campbell
Those are the words of Thomas Edison and he was correct. The incandescent light bulb he had developed has been superseded by the LED light system with light on less current and no discernible heat.
So it is with almost everything within our life on this planet. I stand by my previous statement that local authorities are hooked on poison and worse, with no discernible success, on the control or eradication of any vegetable or animal targeted by the present programme.
However the damage begins immediately under our feet in the soil we depend on to feed us. When the ‘poison label’ states, ‘Do not replant for twenty –two months’ after the use of this product’, what do you think?
The entire food chain is being destroyed from the soil biology, to plant life, to insect life, bird life and in the water, fish life and then the water fowl. The most recent example is the declining quality of the water and habitat in the Wangamarino Wetland along with Lakes Wangapae and Waikare. Close by Whitianga, twenty years of ‘diquat poisoning’ of the Cook’s Beach lakes left them more or less putrid and on the bigger scene, sixty years of flinging poison at everything has improved nothing at all. The Waikato Regional Council and Department of Conservation are vigorously defending their collective means of attack on pest animal life on the Coromandel Peninsula by the use of poison.
The pests begin with the humble mouse to rats, weasels, stoats, ferrets, cats, possums, goats, and pigs. All of these pests have one thing in common; they love a free feed and that is the pest’s weak link. Let’s begin with the humble mouse. Every time I went to my workshop I saw mice scurrying and I set the latest type of trap, but they ate the bait and survived. I investigated further, made a trap and in twenty–four hours caught all the mice, I did not have to re-bait or re-set the trap, all automatic. On this farm 105 cats, weasels, ferrets and stoats have been caught in a trap possibly worth $75.00.
There were better ways as Edison said. Farmers have trapped hundreds, possibly thousands of deer by giving them access to fenced pasture or forage crops and then simply closing the access opening. In this day and age all manner of portable yards and cages are available. They can be set up virtually anywhere and baited accordingly. There will be a cost and labour required. Keep in mind that helicopter charge out rates range from $700.00 an hour for a small training machine to over $3000.00 for bigger machines. Dropping 1080 probably falls into the $1800.00 –$2,000.00 range. Now as said, poison has eradicated nothing except the unintended innocent victims. In full view are Californian thistle sprayed several times, but still flourishing, no sign of eradication. What does that tell you?
