The Maine Board of Pesticide Control voted unanimously Friday in favor of banning a toxic class of rodenticide.
Francesca Gundrum of the Maine Audubon Society said that the potent chemicals – known as second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) – can persist in the environment long after they’ve been ingested, harming other wildlife.
“So think owls, hawks, fox, bobcat, even up to bears,” she said.
That’s because those animals prey on the rodents that ingest the poison — which is also potent enough to kill them, too.
“We know that these really potent, extra harmful chemicals persist in the environment for a long time,” Gundrum added.
The State of Maine conducted a limited sampling for rodenticides in 2024, and found that 4 out of 4 bears and 4 out of 6 hawks tested positive for rodenticides.
And the New England Wildlife Center reported that they see between 100 and 200 cases of secondary poisoning each year.
The ban on the sale of the products will go into effect next week.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.