Hello Gardeners! I am having an issue with my garden and I was hoping for some advice. I have around 130 tomato plants in my garden and around 70 pepper plants. Last week I was on vacation and I asked my dad to look after the garden. He noticed that I was having a rodent problem so he decided to put tomcat mouse and rat poisoning around the bases of the plants. Would the plants absorb this poison and make the tomatoes and peppers inedible? My wife is pregnant so I am definitely not letting her eat any of it, but I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on if it was safe for others to eat?

I would ask the manufacturer of the poison about that. And I don't think that's the way it's supposed to be used.

I wouldn't be putting poison out full stop, and certainly not around crops.

Bfforadori said:Hello Gardeners! I am having an issue with my garden and I was hoping for some advice. I have around 130 tomato plants in my garden and around 70 pepper plants. Last week I was on vacation and I asked my dad to look after the garden. He noticed that I was having a rodent problem so he decided to put tomcat mouse and rat poisoning around the bases of the plants. Would the plants absorb this poison and make the tomatoes and peppers inedible? My wife is pregnant so I am definitely not letting her eat any of it, but I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on if it was safe for others to eat?

They tell you to wash your hands after even handling those poison bait bars. I would pick up all the poison and not leave it there. Not sure at all how much if any the plants might absorb. If there has been no rain or watering then not much. Not at all sure about it being safe to eat.

@Bfforadori -- I would call the manufacturer. It may actually be ok to use near food crops if it does not touch them, but I would not trust that and actually call the manufacturer. You could also call the American Association of Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 - I bet they would know. And I also bet they would not mind one bit if you called them either. They might actually be a better option for you to call. Or call both of them.

Strongly agree with Rita - you should pick up every bit of that poison that you can. Not only might it poison your plants (don't know) but the rodents that eat it then go off and die somewhere else, and could be consumed by predators (before they die) or other carrion eating animals or birds. So you can cause a widespread problem with a lot of species by using rodent poison irresponsibly.

My daughter's cat almost died last year because a neighbor put out rat poison in covered "stations" and she ate part of one of the poisoned rats.

Please DO get out there and remove the stuff as best you can, even scraping up and replacing the tainted soil if necessary! Using simple traps is the way to go, and that way you know what you're dealing with. Usually a large population of mice will attract predators like owls, hawks and snakes very quickly to take care of the problem for you. But if you poison them all . . the problem will persist and you'll forever be having to deal with the aftermath.

I agree with getting it picked up ASAP, as well as calling Poison Control; and please be SURE to keep any pets out of the area (even if you don't have any yourself, if there are other local pets - most likely cats - you could put some fencing around the plants to keep them away; death by rodent poison is not a pretty thing )

I put D-con in my crawl space once because of roof rats...then worried about my dogs eating the dead rats and called the 800 number on the package...was told they would have to eat 10 rats for every pound they weighted for there to be a problem. Definately call the manufacturor they should be able to answer ALL your questions. Think when I called I was transfered to the research dept.

For what it's worth, some years back one of my dogs ate an entire package of D-con, including most of the box (she was a good sized dog, probably about 70 lbs). We spotted the remains of the box, saw that she was looking VERY green, and rushed her to the emergency vet (of COURSE this happened on a Sunday!). They induced vomiting (I think), kept her overnight, and she was fine after a bit. All of which really has no relevance to the original question, but I thought I'd throw it out there just for information purposes.

I use Tomcat for squirrels. The big blocks I use are not water soluble. I don't know about the tomcat mouse and rat poison. The reasoning behind using a bait like Tomcat is that it takes continuous feeding over a couple weeks to kill the rodent. I'm not sure you want to buy that much bait. How about a miniature trap line.

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The problem is the bigger picture, Razib. You still must MUST dispose of dead bodies. Bait is fine as long as you are responsible for disposing of ALL the dead mice/rats who eat the bait. If a mouse eats poison bait, then before it dies, is caught by a predator like a bird or cat, the predator then also will consume the poison and die. Unfortunately you simply can't be sure to get EVERY rodent that eats your bait. It is not a responsible way to deal with that problem and there is no way to control how far it goes. Do carrion eaters consume the poisoned bodies and die also? This causes a whole new problem.

If you kill off predators your mouse problem gets worse not better, as does your whole ecology. It's a domino effect. This thread started with someone who did not want to eat their tomatoes because someone had put out bait near the plants. There's nothing to prevent the bait dissolving and being taken up by the plant? You would use bait on a farm, then? Would you eat the bait yourself? Would you eat a vegetable that was tainted with the bait?

Even putting bait out in your house means you will have rodents going into hiding places like the walls or attic, then dying and smelling terrible if you don't find the body. With traps, at least you have control of the dead rodents AND their bodies are not tainted with poison.

I have to agree with Elaine on this. After the incident with my dog, we stopped using poison baits. I have cats, and they eat mice. Heck, my DOG eats mice.

Bfforadori said:Hello Gardeners! I am having an issue with my garden and I was hoping for some advice. I have around 130 tomato plants in my garden and around 70 pepper plants. Last week I was on vacation and I asked my dad to look after the garden. He noticed that I was having a rodent problem so he decided to put tomcat mouse and rat poisoning around the bases of the plants. Would the plants absorb this poison and make the tomatoes and peppers inedible? My wife is pregnant so I am definitely not letting her eat any of it, but I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on if it was safe for others to eat?

Define rodent problem.
With that many plants to have a problem you would have to have herds of rodents running around.
I far fewer tomato plants and and for every five I pick one or two fall off the plant over ripe.
As much poison as it would take for so many plants you will end up with some in the ground and more or less have a tomato, chile and poison patch.
I live close to a swamp and have rabbits, voles, squirrels both regular and flying and found out moles but never have they caused problems once the plants reach a certain size.

I was kind of wondering what the "rodent problem" actually consisted of, too. The main problem now, though, seems to be the poison that was used while the OP was away.