Rats first arrived on LHI in 1918. Since then, residents and the Board have endeavored to control their numbers by shooting, ratting with dogs, introducing owls and, most recently, baiting with anticoagulant poisons.
The Board’s now-retired program aimed to control the negative effects of rodents. Under the program, neither the rat nor mouse population was being impacted enough to reduce large scale ecological impacts.
Control was also more difficult and costly than the strategic option of eradication.
Rodent tails were collected and counted by rat hunting parties