Year Two Without Poison on Marco Island
Marco Island has one of the biggest burrowing owl populations in Florida. For years those owls were dying from rat poison.
AWE wildlife biologist Brittany Piersma had the owls tested. Fifty-five of fifty-nine came back positive. That number stuck with a lot of people on this island — me included. Once you know the food chain is carrying poison into burrows in your own neighborhoods, "we've always done it this way" stops being a good enough answer.
The January 5, 2026 City Council vote that pulled rodenticide off city property has its own post. This is the year-two story: what sealing, monitoring, and fertility feed actually looked like after the bait boxes came up.
Mackle Park showed it could work
Before the citywide program, Audubon Western Everglades and Wisdom Good Works ran a year-long Good Bites fertility-feed pilot at Mackle Park. Owl Watch volunteers checked the stations every week. The rat population dropped 61% in an open system — no poison required.
Along the way the city found open gaps in the building. I sealed every entry point I could find. Fewer rats, nothing poisoned, and the hawks could hunt without picking up a dose of anticoagulant with dinner.
That pilot is why the vote wasn't a leap of faith. It was a building that already proved the model.
After the vote: six facilities, zero poison boxes
On January 5, Council unanimously backed removing rodenticide from city properties. That meant 95 poison bait boxes were coming out. The City brought Seal Em Out in to run the replacement program starting February 1 at six city facilities: Good Bites fertility stations, monitoring, trapping where needed, and sealing the buildings.
Since then I've done structural sealing work on city buildings, including a City Hall building. We've also completed sealing and repairs at the police station.
And Seal Em Out just landed a new contract for ongoing poison-free protection — another place choosing buildings sealed tight over bait boxes.
This Valentine's Day, Marco broke up with poison
When those bait boxes came off city property, I couldn't just toss them in the van.
We laid them out on the driveway and spelled I LOVE OWLS, then put a drone up. Every one of those boxes had been sitting outside year-round, full of poison blocks — petroleum plastic and second-generation anticoagulant, waiting for anything that crawled in or ate what crawled out. Now they're out of the food chain for good.
Year two is underway — and growing
The poison-free program is continuing into its second year (October 2026–September 2027), and it's growing. Mackle Park is back in, and the Water & Sewer department is adding its own buildings — nine city facilities in all for year two. Beyond the city contract, dozens of residential homes are sealed, and a bunch of condos have gone poison-free too.
That's the part I care about most: not a one-time press moment, but a city that keeps choosing sealed buildings and fertility stations over another year of black boxes in the landscaping.
Why poison makes Florida's rat problem worse
In Florida, poison doesn't solve rodents — it accelerates the mess.
Roof rats are aerial. They live in trees, attics, and along power lines. Natural food is everywhere. Kill or poison a percentage of them and you don't clear the property. You get sick, disoriented rats that come out in daylight, act strangely, and get spotted more often. Sightings go up. People think the problem got worse. Often it did — because poison never addressed how they get inside.
If your standard is zero tolerance for rodents inside a building, the case for poison falls apart. Seal the entry points. Remove the indoor food and nesting spots. Then use tools that don't put poison into the food chain for owls, hawks, and pets.
That's the work: sealed buildings, fertility stations where they fit, and monitoring — not bait boxes sitting outside year-round.
Condos, churches, and neighborhoods going poison-free
I've been giving free Wildlife-Safe Rat Prevention talks for condo boards, HOAs, churches, and neighborhood groups around Marco Island and Naples — Shipps Landing, VeronaWalk, and other Marco condo groups among them. The owl science and the building science both matter; I cover how rats actually get into structures and how to shut those paths down for good.
Properties that go poison-free can get an Owl Watch certificate to hang by the door. So far that list includes Crescent Beach Condos, City of Marco Island properties, Wesley Methodist Church, Sunset House South Condos, Shipps Landing, Emerald Beach Condos, and Marco Eden Apartments.
We've also sat down with Collier County leadership and walked county buildings with facilities staff to show what exclusion looks like up close. The conversation is bigger than one island now.
Once residents, businesses, officials, and HOAs see real actions with real results, the conversation changes. It stops being can we do this without poison and becomes why didn't we do this sooner. — Paul Trapp, Seal Em Out (Coastal Breeze News, Jan 2026)
Want a free talk — or a free look at where they're getting in?
If your condo board, HOA, church, club, or business wants to learn how to handle rats without poison, I'm happy to come out and give a free presentation. I can also do a free inspection to show you exactly where rats are getting in.
Seal Em Out: (239) 946-RATS / (239) 946-7287 · sealemout@gmail.com · sealemout.com
Owl Watch (Audubon Western Everglades) is a good resource if you want the owl side of the story: audubonwe.org/owlwatch · owlwatchmarco@gmail.com
Thanks to Owl Watch volunteers, Audubon Western Everglades, the City of Marco Island and its Beach & Coastal Resources Advisory Committee, and Wisdom Good Works. A lot of people cared about the owls — and kept showing up after the vote.
