Unalaska, AK – The much discussed rat eradication project on Rat Island, about 200 miles from Adak, ended without much fanfare in about one third of the estimated time. Project planners thought it might take up to 45 days to cover every inch of the 68 hundred acre island with rat poison but good weather helped the team finish in just 12 and return a month early, in mid-October. Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge biologist Steve Ebert said the good weather was necessary in order for helicopters to fly over the island in precise patterns.

"Underneath the helicopter is a specialized bait spreader bucket that spreads this bait it's a compressed grain, kind of like dog food pellets in a precise pattern over the island at a known application rate," he explained. "We wanted to make sure that every rat territory had bait in it. We didn't want to miss any rats in any of the ravines, around the mountains or anywhere along the coast."

Helicopters covered most of the island in three days but sensitive areas near lakes were hand covered by 15 people over two days. They then waited a few more before repeating the process.

"We also wanted to make sure that if there were any rats that were still nursing but not eating any solid food, if the adults die then those younger rats might just be old enough to come out and we wanted to make sure there was bait available for them."

The poison takes a few days to kill the rats. After they ingest enough of it, it makes them feel ill, they crawl into their burrows and die there. That prevents eagles from eating them and ingesting the poison as well. Ebert said the poison won't hurt the soil chemistry either. "The chemical breaks down inside of the rat's body and breaks down in the soil to other things that are less toxic or are not toxic at all."

The biologists will return to the island over the next two years to make sure the project worked. "What we're going to do is mix chocolate up with wax and stick it places on the island and we know then that rats will be attracted to that and we'll know by their teeth marks if there are rats still on the island."

The $2 million project required 6,000 gallons of fuel, 100,000 pounds of poisoned rat bait, and 27 people just for this fall's portion. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service wanted to rid the island of rats so that seabirds could again roost there. The island is thought to be the first place Norway rats were introduced in this country back in the 1780s.