The pest control technician who is performing pest control at Malibu High School said Wednesday the amount of pesticides being applied on the MHS campus is not enough to harm other animals. John Reynolds, a pest control technician who works for Stanley Pest Control in Van Nuys, told The Malibu Times he is still monitoring Malibu High School on Saturdays to reduce an overpopulation of gophers and ground squirrels. Reynolds said signs posted warning of the potential use of the pesticides fumitoxin, strychnine and diphacinone do not necessarily mean he is applying pesticides, only that the pesticides might be used.
The school district hired Stanley Pest Control after a Los Angeles County Department of Public Health inspection found an overpopulation of gophers and ground squirrels at Malibu High School in early August. State law requires the district to contract out for pest control services when there is an overpopulation of rodents. Ground squirrels and gophers are known to carry diseases such as plague.
“The situation at Malibu is something where it’s managing just enough so that the coyotes, owls and all the other little things that are in the area can do their job,” Reynolds said. “So all I’m doing is keeping the population managed enough so that the natural predators in the area do their job.”
Reynolds said the last time he applied more pesticides was one week ago. He said the ground squirrel population appeared to be decreasing, but the gopher population remained a problem. Fumitoxin and diphacinone, anticoagulant pesticides that prevent blood from clotting and eventually cause death through internal bleeding, have been applied at the site.
Residents have expressed concern that the pesticides could kill other animals such as dogs, coyotes and birds of prey should they eat a poisoned gopher or ground squirrel.
That phenomenon is called “second death.”
“I’ve never had any experience where [second death] is a likely concern,” Reynolds said of the possibility that predators could die from eating infected rodents. “Even if they were to eat a dozen in a night, they would not be exposed to enough material that it would be a risk.”
The fumitoxin at Malibu High School has been administered in pellet form. The pellets are placed in rodent burrows and then sealed off from the ground. Moisture from underground releases the poison, which Reynolds said disperses quickly, leaving behind aluminum oxide, which is found in sand paper.
Diphacinone has been administered through the use of bait stations. Reynolds said the stations are made tamper-resistant, which he said means they can only be opened by force with a crow bar or a saw. They contain a hole large enough for rats, gophers and ground squirrels to enter, but not large enough for predators. The rodents then eat the diphacinone and leave, taking several days to die.
Reynolds said the bait stations were installed on the perimeter sites of campus in areas of least risk to people walking their dogs on campus. He also said the levels of diphacinone being used at MHS are very low.
Diphacinone was identified in a 2005 study by National Park Service scientists in the Santa Monica Mountains as one of four anticoagulants found in mountain lions who had died of poisoning in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Reynolds said that in his experience, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has one of the most restrictive policies toward pesticide use in the state. Reynolds said that for SMMUSD pesticides are a last resort when every other reasonable measure has failed. He also said the list of pesticides that can be used on SMMUSD campuses is more restrictive than mandated by the state in the Health Schools Act.