'Out of luck': Strychnine arrives late for Alberta and Saskatchewan farmers

A Richardson's ground squirrel takes in the golf action at a golf course in Banff, Alta., on July 25, 2011. Strychnine has been temporarily allowed for farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan to deal with the ground squirrel, commonly called gophers in Western Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

The first window of time for farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan to obtain strychnine to deal with burgeoning ground squirrel populations is about to run out, and many producers are now hoping for better luck next spring.

Wade Nelson, who farms near High River, Alta., about 66 kilometres south of Calgary, said it’s best to deal with the rodents when they come out of hibernation and begin mating.

“After the middle of June, you’re pretty well out of luck,” Nelson said.

Health Canada had previously banned the chemical out of concern for endangered species — such as burrowing owls and swift foxes — and the broader ecosystem.

However, federal government announced in March that producers can again start using two-per-cent liquid strychnine until November 2027 to control Richardson’s ground squirrels, commonly called gophers in Western Canada.

The president of Regina-based Agromax, the sole manufacturer of two-per-cent liquid strychnine in Canada, said they recently received a shipment of the undiluted chemical and have already started distilling it down for distribution.

“Distribution will go out to the municipalities starting at the beginning to the middle of next week and some should have starting amounts next week and into the following week,” Brent Punga said in an interview Friday.

“By then, we should have the second and third rounds of material hit us, so we hope everyone will get the amount they’re looking for to do late summer applications.”

Punga said the raw supplies in India were plentiful, but a shortage of fuel caused many flights to be cancelled and dangerous goods were at the bottom of the priority list.

The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments had been pushing Ottawa to lift the strychnine ban as farmers warned of increases in damaged crops and injuries to livestock.

Don Connick, who farms near Gull Lake, Sask., said most people don’t realize the damage one Richardson’s ground squirrel can do.

“(They) will probably eat a five-metre circle around every hole that they dig, so there is serious damage,” he said.

Nelson, who is also a member of the Foothills County Agricultural Services Board, said he saw the wreckage the rodents can cause a few years ago on a 70-hectare field he planted with canola.

“I lost an entire field, which didn’t even get a chance to germinate — the gophers ate the seed right out of the ground,” he said.

Nelson said he received $55 an acre back from the insurance, but it cost him at least $250 an acre to seed the field.

“So right there I lost $200 an acre and that was just my input costs.”

Two strictly regulated application periods have been designated by the federal government — March 1 to June 15 before vegetation emerges, and then July 15 to Sept. 1 after the vegetation has died down.

Nelson said using the chemical after late spring isn’t very effective because the rodents would have done most of the damage to crops by then.

“The damage they’re going to do is when the crops are being seeded or just coming up,” he said.

Punga said farmers realize the problems with the supply chain, but he understands their frustration.

“It was a late decision by the federal government, so we would have had that early season window to control them, but that just didn’t happen.”

Both Connick and Nelson said a cool, wet spring so far seems to have held the gopher populations at bay after years of growth due to hot and dry conditions.

However, Mark Brigham, a professor with the Department of Biology at the University of Regina, isn’t sure if the weather is responsible.

“Certainly with wet weather there is more of a possibility of fungal infections or perhaps parasites or all sorts of things,” Brigham said.

“But I would emphasize, from a real scientific data point of view, I just don’t think we know particularly, what, if anything, the wet weather causes.”

Brigham believes an increase in the hawk and fox population has affected the ground squirrels’ survival.

“They are very, very good at catching lots of these animals and, in areas where badger numbers are pretty high, they dig them up and eat them so there are lots of things that depend on ground squirrels for food,” he said.

“That’s probably a bigger way that populations are regulated.”

Brigham, who has studied bats and Prairie rodents for decades, thinks bringing back strychnine is a mistake.

“In the long term, it’s not going to have any great effect. Lots of other animals are going to die because of it,” he said.

“I just think in this day and age, it is dumb to be putting stuff like that on the landscape.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2026.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press