Onset resident Jessica Bell, 36, said she often finds dead squirrels, birds and rats in her yard, once a coyote she regularly saw died beneath her neighbor's porch.

Determined to find the cause, Bell and her husband, Mohammed Marzuq, traced the deaths to their neighbor’s home. According to Bell, the owner does not live there year-round but pays a pest control company to regularly place rat poison bait stations around the property. Concerned about the impact on local wildlife and her pets, she decided to take action.

Bell has proposed a ban on rat poison, which Wareham voters will consider at the April 28 Spring Town Meeting.

Her citizen petition warrant article mirrors bans passed in ten Massachusetts towns and proposes phasing out the use of rodenticide on public and private property over a 90 day period following the vote. The proposal includes a stipulation that would allow the use of rat poison if a public health crisis occurred as determined by the Board of Health.

Bell said she has observed animals in her neighborhood exhibiting the effects of consuming rat poison since moving to Onset in 2019.

“We had foxes, hawks and coyotes in our yard and we noticed that they appeared sickly. They were bleeding, walking slowly and they'd be out in the day,” she said.

She eventually decided to take action last year when an eight-week-old puppy she was fostering chewed on a dead poisoned rat. While the puppy survived, the incident cost her $500 in veterinary bills, which she said is “on the low end” for treatment.

According to the Food and Drug Administration one of the primary dangers for domestic animals is that symptoms of ingesting poison can take three to seven days to appear.

Bell asked the neighbor to stop using rat poison, the neighbor refused, in response she drafted the citizen petition. To handle a rat problem in her own home, Bell hired a pest control company that uses an “integrated pest management” approach, a strategy she advocates for as an alternative to bait station rat poison. 

Instead of laying poison traps, integrated management companies aim to target specific pest problems with the “least harmful and most effective methods, minimizing risks to human health, beneficial organisms and the environment,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The strategy focuses on prevention by eliminating food, water and shelter sources and uses a combination of biological and cultural controls, such as natural predators, sanitation practices and snap traps. The method also emphasizes monitoring and observation to promote a targeted approach.

While integrated management has a higher up front cost, Bell paid a $1,200 one-time fee, she said it's cheaper in the long run. Companies that use poison charge a recurring fee to continually lay the bait stations, which averages between $400 and $1,200 annually, according to several pest control company websites. Bell said her neighbor has been using bait station poison for over a decade.

“Bait stations I refer to as like the Netflix membership, it's wicked lazy. They go in once a month, fill it with bait, and then leave,” Bell said.

Wareham Director of Natural Resources, Garry Buckminster, said banning rat poison “has its pros and cons.”

Buckminster said if the ban passes enforcement “will be difficult” and prohibition could result in expenses for both pest control companies and those who utilize their services.

“People who just buy them from the store tend to put them out in areas that other animals can access and you end up having pets or wild birds consume it,” Buckminster said. “I respect the proponents' thought process on [the ban], but I think there's a lot of questions that need to be answered with it as well.”

Bell owns a commercial cleaning company which provides sanitation services for offices, animal hospitals and similar businesses.

“Sanitation is my thing,” she said. “I’m not trying to go after pest control companies. I'm really not. I get it, you got to eat. But there's a lot of pest control companies that are no longer using rodenticide and taking a different approach.”