>Uruk-hai, orcs, or Balrogs

Aren't they native?

They likely spread rocky mountain fever instead, if they are dog ticks like we have in Colorado.

Albertan here too. Can confirm no rats

My friend got Lyme disease from a tick though so I can't agree with that part

> the ticks here don't spread Lyme disease.

this is out of date information unfortunately. With warming climate, the black-legged tick has spread into Alberta and samples have been found with the Lyme disease bacterium.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/tick-lyme-diseas...

The dose makes the poison. Warfarin is prescribed as a blood thinner for humans.

Around here the coyotes eat mice. I'll see a golf ball size blob of crushed bones and fur on the driveway now and then.

A few years ago, a coyote mom with her 5 pups set up shop on my front lawn. She'd keep a weather eye on me, and me on her, and we got along fine. Over the summer, the number of pups dwindled. I saw a severed head of one a ways away, I think it was done by an eagle. I think only 2 survived the summer.

I sometimes see 6 eagles at a time circling overhead. One flew by so close I could have touched its wingtip. Wow!

A bobcat lives nearby. I see his tracks in the snow, and saw him a couple times.

I live well within the Seattle metropolitan area. Isn't it amazing?

This inevitably brings us to the story of the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, and how they eat the deer which brings back a whole new slew of changes.

Farmers and pet-owners might prefer the rats.

Coyote populations are climbing, not shrinking.

fox eat rats too

eliminate malaria from the continental US. Check.

eliminate smallpox. Check.

eliminate measles. Own goal.

"Alberta has no rats" is a bit of a simplification, as the linked article goes into in depth. They do find rat investations (typically) in the border zones, and some sneak through, both wild and domesticated. Due to ongoing management though the statement is true in broad strokes. We have lots of mice and all sorts of ground squirrels (including a ridiculously awesome "museum") but thankfully very few rats.

https://www.gopherholemuseum.org/

I spent the first half of my life in Alberta; had never seen a rat nor a cockroach. I moved further east in the country, cockroaches in my first apartment the first week there... and then discovered rats near the waterfront within the month.

My dad and uncles lived near the southern border as kids, would hunt rats by the train station/grain elevator with a .22 back in the 50's & 60's.

Living in a warm climate US city i noticed roaches almost disappeared once off the first floor, i saw only one in five years in a 7th-floor apartment.

I live in a wooded, fairly rural area and I see cockroaches outside, under leaves, fallen branches, etc. but they don't really come into the house.

> I've seen pictures of em, and I'm pretty sure if I saw one of those things irl I would absolutely shit myself.

I always thought this was interesting (how many people are super scared of cockroaches). I'm absolutely terrified of bugs, I see cockroaches very rarely, and while I wouldn't pet one... They're not too bad? There's tons of bugs that are way scarier. Spiders, house centipedes, camel crickets. And that's just the stuff that actually exists near me. If I encountered an average Australian insect, good God, I'd run screaming. But cockroaches? Eh

I assume it's because cockroaches are associated with filth, and they tend to occur in large numbers. But as individual bugs, on the surface level they're not too bad. (Not "disagreeing" or anything, just think the different perspectives are neat)

isn't it kind of moot? there are plenty of other rodents. They fill the gap left by rats. I'm not really sure eliminating all rodents would be a good idea for the ecosystem.

Re: cockroaches, I haven't seen them until my mid 30s, when I started traveling to warm countries.

> Also, as an aside, people often don't believe me when I say I've never seen a cockroach

That one is pretty shocking. When I lived in South Carolina I remember I used to walk this one road late at night. Once it was dark enough I could see them scattering underneath the streetlights on the fucking sidewalk. Reminded me of sidewalk lizards in Florida, but grosser. I live in the Midwest now. I’m just glad they’re smaller here and don’t fly.

Don’t receive shipments of goods from out of province then. Vermin get transported in packaging easily.

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Also, many of them are sepa-RAT-ists.

The irony that they figured out how to eliminate rats, but can’t diversify from oil and gas is pretty special.