Rat poison concern

[Amicci]

Hi there, sadly haven’t seen our 2 regular hedgehogs for around 3 weeks now. A dead hedgehog was found at the feeding station with no apparent injuries, just died, but the other was still visiting up until then. My worry is that my next door neighbour laid 3 rat bait boxes at around the same time, so do you think maybe the little hogs have been poisoned? I have retrieved one of the boxes, as it was on the edge of my garden! I am truly devastated and although we get on with the neighbours, I feel such anger!

[Nic]

Hi Amicci

So sorry to hear about the hog. That must have been very distressing for you to find. I completely understand your feelings. Not sure whether you meant that the poor hog was a hoglet?

If someone is going to put down poison the more responsible thing to do is to use bait boxes, which theoretically adult hedgehogs should not be able to enter. I’m not so sure about hoglets, though. To be safe, bait boxes should really be placed where hedgehogs are less likely to be able to access them. But hedgehogs can climb to some extent, which people don’t always realise.

Not a very nice subject, but when rats die from rat bait, they usually have blood coming out of their mouths. The poison works by thinning the blood. But if the hog had eaten rat bait you might have similarly seen blood coming from it’s mouth. If it didn’t, that might make you feel not quite so bad. i.e. potentially that the hog died of natural causes.

There is a place you can send hogs that have died from unknown causes. I’m not sure whether this is still operating in the present circumstances, but you can probably find out:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/garden-wildlife-health-gwh/

Don’t forget though to enter the poor hog on the Big Hedgehog Map. That way, at least the hog existence is marked and the combined information from the map might help other hedgehogs.

Regarding the missing hog/s – they do tend to ‘disappear’ at certain times and everyone gets worried, but very often they do eventually return. Fingers crossed that your other hog visitors do return.

[5sandown]

I was visiting my father’s retirement apartment last week and the gardener found a youngish hog stuck in a tube rat trap. Thankfully there was no poison and the hog seemed fine. I took the opportunity to advise them how dangerous traps are to hogs and they removed them. No harm done on this occasion but it shows how important it is to keep publicising these and other dangers to hogs like netting and strimming. Most people will listen, particularly when, like this, they get to see what the dangers can do.

[Amicci]

Thank you for your replies, I buried the hedhehog, it was a large adult, and have sent off for leaflets, from this site, to distribute to neighbours. I mapped the poor hedgehog too

[Nic]

That’s brilliant about the leaflets, Amicci. Good luck with them – I hope you get a good response.

[Author]

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