On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 15:52:41 -0400, "B. Joshua Rosen"
wrote:


As a practical matter a cat can't or won't exterminate all of the little
critters. My cat kills a rodent a day and everyday there is a new rodent
for him to catch. He doesn't even have to range very far, he gets them all
in area that's maybe a few hundred square feet large. Rodents reproduce in
huge numbers, if they didn't they would have become extinct millions of
years ago. Domestic cats alone must kill billions of
mice/moles/chipmunks/shrews/voles a year, and none of those creatures is
on the endangered species list.

I think, though, that a cat can keep their numbers down in
your immediate area, to the point that they're not much of a
problem.

At least, we've not found them to be a problem yet. We know
they're here because our cat leaves a dead vole, or mole, or
mouse on the front porch almost every day, except in winter.

Pat