I just turned on an outside light and horrified to see a rat eating slug pellets I sprinkled around a hosta (eaten to the ground 6 years in a row by slugs and now safely in a pot). Will need to find an alternative to deal with the snails.
I’ve just watched a large rat eating up all the ferric phosphate pellets I had put out to protect my artichoke from slugs. Does anyone know if it is likely to poison it?
@dbaron, l found this from the RSPB website. It's an old one, back in 2014 before slug pellets changed, but it's possible that it still applies today.
" Apparently slug pellets are made from the same sorts of stuff pet food is made from, which is why slugs want to eat them. The manufactures add in the poison and also a substance called Bitrex, which tastes very bitter and so discourages pets and other animals from eating what would otherwise be very tasty pellets and being poisoned.
Because the iron based pellets are not so toxic to other animals the manufactures leave out the Bitrex...
...and create rat food! I never found any dead rats and they ate a huge number of pellets before I solved the mystery and stopped using them, so they are probably not toxic to rats at least."
@AnnieD. Thanks, that’s really helpful. At least I know not to keep putting them out. I shall have to deal with the rat another way and the artichokes are going to have to fend for themselves for the time being.
That explains why the ferric phosphate pellets disappear overnight!!
I kept bird food in a large deep plastic tub in the garage....went out one day to find holes chewed in the lid, and two mice in residence....one alive, one dead and cannibalised. I assume they couldn't get back out. All the food went in the bin....
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I just turned on an outside light and horrified to see a rat eating slug pellets I sprinkled around a hosta (eaten to the ground 6 years in a row by slugs and now safely in a pot). Will need to find an alternative to deal with the snails.
" Apparently slug pellets are made from the same sorts of stuff pet food is made from, which is why slugs want to eat them. The manufactures add in the poison and also a substance called Bitrex, which tastes very bitter and so discourages pets and other animals from eating what would otherwise be very tasty pellets and being poisoned.
Because the iron based pellets are not so toxic to other animals the manufactures leave out the Bitrex...
...and create rat food! I never found any dead rats and they ate a huge number of pellets before I solved the mystery and stopped using them, so they are probably not toxic to rats at least."
So it looks like the short answer is "No"