Discusses Policy Against Rodenticides
To The Editor:
On April 20, 2026 our Board of Selectman unanimously voted to ban rodenticides (SGARs) on all Municipal property!
This is a life-saving WIN for the Wildlife of Newtown, including Birds of Prey, Foxes and other natural predators who rely on rodents for their food.
The ban is also important for our children, and pets who are often accidentally exposed and harmed by rat poison as well.
If you have black plastic boxes outside the perimeter of your home, business or farm, you have rodenticides on your property.
Environmental organizations have been working tirelessly to ban second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) because these mouse/rat poisons are systematically killing CT Wildlife.
To quote David Michel, “This is an ecological unraveling, happening quietly, one bait box at a time, all across Connecticut.”
According to Connecticut for Animals, “These poisons were originally formulated to kill rodents like rats and mice, squirrels and chipmunks, but rodents are the main food source for most Raptors.
So if a Mother Owl feeds her baby Owlet a rodenticide-poisoned mouse, it will kill the baby in a slow excruciating manner.”
In 2025 the legislation banning SGARs passed at the State level BUT, with one FATAL flaw, “licensed professionals” are now allowed to use (SGARs) freely.
So a pest company can come to your house for a rodent issue, place black bait boxes filled with rat poison outside of your home, tell you it’s perfectly safe, and call it a day. Sadly, without any regard for the devastating consequences.
Over the past five years, I have seen black bait boxes popping up all over Newtown, even in my own neighborhood. For many companies, this has become their FIRST course of action for rodent prevention, even though they can use other methods that are proven to work better. Pest companies that do not use rat poisons, offer safer solutions, including, exclusion, sanitation, fertility control and mouse traps that do not harm other wildlife, pets and children.
I feel compelled to do my part to educate my friends and neighbors, in the hope that we can turn this around before it is too late.
One day, I watched an Owl dying on my property. When I reached out to Wildlife In Crisis, the diagnosis was rodenticide poisoning, and there was nothing they could do … But, there IS something we CAN do!
Please join me in my commitment to never use rodenticide poisons for rodent issues, and help to keep Newtown Wildlife, Pets and Children safe!
Suzan Hurtuk
Newtown
I think it is important that we do not villainize every black box seen around a home, business, farm, or municipal property. A black exterior station does not always mean rat poison is being used. These stations can hold a number of different products, including monitoring blocks, snap traps, non-toxic bait, anti-tick bait stations, organic salt- or cornmeal-based control products, and newer fertility-control approaches intended to reduce rodent populations without traditional poisons.
The better conversation, in my opinion, is not simply “black boxes are bad,” but rather: what is inside them, who is maintaining them, and whether the rodent issue is being managed responsibly. Exclusion, sanitation, trapping, habitat reduction, and careful monitoring should all be part of a responsible IPM strategy.
To be fair, on my own property I do use rodenticides, including Bromethalin and Bromadiolone, in secured bait stations. But that is a choice I make for my property, based on my circumstances and the risk I am trying to manage. I also believe property owners should understand the tradeoffs and be encouraged to use the least harmful effective method whenever possible.
I support protecting Newtown’s wildlife. I also support giving residents accurate information and not assuming that every black box represents reckless or unsafe pest control. The goal should be responsible rodent management, not fear of the box itself.