RED-SQUILL POWDER IX EAT COXTROL 7 



Ix addition to its effectiveness in destroying rats, the principal 

 characteristic of red squill that recommends it as a raticide is its 

 relative harmlessness to human beings and domestic 

 Effect on animals. In most cases cats, dogs, chickens, and 



Other Ani- other animals that were offered foods poisoned with 

 mals red squill either refused or promptly vomited them. 



Cats in particular disliked the baits and as they 

 would hardly touch food containing 1 per cent of red squill, whereas 

 5 to 10 per cent is the usual concentration in rat baits, and it was 

 concluded that cats probably would not eat them. Dogs also showed 

 aversion for baits containing low concentrations of red squill, al- 

 though in two instances they gulped down baits containing 10 per 

 cent, but vomiting was the only effect noted. 



Chickens have a relatively high resistance to red squill, and when 

 fed a 10 per cent concentration in mash to the exclusion of all other 

 foods for a period of two weeks, they showed no apparent ill effects. 

 Baby chicks are not likely to eat enough feed containing 10 per cent 

 of powdered red squill to cause death, even if no other feed is avail- 

 able. Dead rats should always be removed from poultry runs, how- 

 ever, as decomposed flesh or maggots, if eaten, may cause limber- 

 neck. 



Pigeons also showed marked immunity, refusing to eat mash con- 

 taining 10 per cent of squill powder, and when large doses were 

 injected into the crop, vomiting was the only result. 



Pigs refused to eat red-squill baits mixed in the proportion recom- 

 mended for rat control and could not be starved into taking any of it, 

 though when offered the same food (tankage) without the squill they 

 ate it greedily. They showed a marked dislike for bait even in the 

 weakest mixtures and could not be induced to eat it in a quantity that 

 would produce ill effects. Pigs can be killed with red squill by forced 

 feeding in the laboratory, but it is highly improbable that they will 

 eat enough squill baits, mixed in the proportion (1 : 16) recommended 

 for rat control to prove injurious. 



In field tests, prairie dogs and pocket gophers refused to eat red- 

 squill baits, but house mice, which are closely related to rats ate 

 them readily. The baits are apparently refused by rodents, other 

 than rats and mice, although a quantity of approximately the same 

 dose as for rats injected directly into the stomach of a woodchuck 

 killed the animal. 



Cases are recorded in other countries of animals killed by squill, 

 and there is record of one death of a human being from taking sirup 

 cf white squill as a medicine. Not all the attending circumstances are 

 known, however, and in several cases of death alleged to have been 

 caused by squill that were carefully investigated, the animals were 

 found to have died from entirely different causes. There may be 

 here noted the instance of a young woman taking as an emetic iy 2 

 teaspoons of a commercial red-squill powder, which was apparently 

 about three-fourths of a grain per pound of body weight ; depression, 

 dizziness, nightmare, vomiting, and diarrhea resulted, but no pain, 

 and full recovery came on the third day. One of the authors of this 

 leaflet swallowed 15 grains of a toxic red-squill powder with no 

 apparent harm, and later took 40 grains, which caused nausea and 

 vomiting within 15 minutes, but no other effect. 



