Prairie gophers will be safe from poison for another year thanks to
Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden.
The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and subsequent American
bombing in Afghanistan has created a worldwide shortage of strychnine.
Nu-Gro Corp., the Prairie’s main supplier of strychnine, buys its
supplies from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Brian Peirce, Nu-Gro’s technical director, said he started worrying
about a strychnine shortage as soon as the airplanes hit the World
Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
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“I started working with our supplier to fly supplies out,” said Peirce,
who wanted to secure supplies before the borders closed.
“Knowing where it came from, I was worried. I was hoping by reacting
quickly that we might have been able to corner supplies.”
About 75 kilograms of raw strychnine are on a boat somewhere between
India and Holland. He’s hoping it may arrive in Canada by mid-May. Even
if the strychnine arrives in Canada, the 75 kg will only make a dent in
the demand in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Peirce had ordered 2,000 kg of strychnine, but has only managed to
obtain 200 kg.
Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has granted emergency
registration of liquid strychnine until June 30 to allow farmers to
poison Richardson’s ground squirrels, commonly called gophers.
The rodents have been a serious problem on prairie farms as they tunnel
through fields and pastures, eating thousands of acres of crop.
Health Canada granted emergency registration last year, the first time
liquid strychnine had been allowed since it was pulled off the market
in 1993.
Last year’s trial was so successful at controlling gophers that Health
Canada agreed to grant emergency registration again.
There is no shortage of the nux vomica plant that strychnine is made
from. It can be made from either the nuts or the bark of the plant.
“It’s just a matter of finding the people to go into the forest to
harvest it.”
Peirce said they have offered four times the existing price and even
offered bonuses to the pickers.
“When people go to war, they don’t focus on farming or harvesting.”
Peirce has called China, Taiwan and other Asian countries searching for
strychnine, with little success and less hope of filling orders from
prairie municipalities.
“As the weeks go on the hope gets slimmer and slimmer, ” he said.
“It’s looking very dark right now in terms of getting the material in
time for our emergency.”
Richard Aucoin of PMRA said Saskatchewan asked the agency to extend the
June 30 deadline for using strychnine.
Carmen Wilk, Saskatchewan’s pesticide management specialist, has also
asked PMRA to allow a new reduced label rate to 0.2 percent from 0.4
percent to help stretch the meager supply.
The 170 Saskatchewan rural municipalities that ordered 2,536 24-bottle
cases of liquid strychnine this spring have so far received 220.
“If we are allowed a lower rate, maybe we can meet 55 to 60 percent of
the demand, Wilk said.
Aucoin said PMRA has approved the new label rate in principal, but
wants liability statements available to farmers so they understand the
lower label rate may not kill gophers as effectively.
“It is very likely the lower strength product will work as effectively,
but we simply don’t have all the data on hand,” Aucoin said.
“We want to be sure under this emergency situation we’re getting the
most effective control as possible.”
Peirce said he is worried the combination of a reduced rate and farmers
not using the strychnine mixture immediately may lower the poison’s
potency.
“We’re supplying an emergency registration of a product that we know
works. To start experimenting doesn’t seem fair. If we dilute it to the
point it doesn’t work, we didn’t help anyone.”
