Dean Maisey's reply to my letter (5/8) accused me of rambling diatribes and name calling. That was in reply to his letter (22/7) calling me a 'fool and an idiot” for supporting the recent 1080 report. He also accuses me of parroting BS statements from '1080 for dummies” after parroting his own from the 'Anti-1080 for dummies” alliance. So 1080 kills everything but causes rat plagues? How strange!

Mast-seeding causes rat plagues and this event has sometimes coincided with 1080 drops. Deer, pigs, goats and stock are trampling flora and fauna, collapsing edges, defecating and dying of natural causes all through our waterways every day yet 1080 is made a scapegoat through the media by the very people who depend on invasive mammals for their livelihoods. The monetary figure you passionately quoted would be 100's of millions higher if NZ was treated through trapping only with the present amount of rodents, stoats and possums.

I have worked for years with aquatic flora and fauna, and have spent the last 3 years doing environmental surveying of flora, fauna and invertebrates around the country. My opinion is my own, from experience and knowledge and I have not been fooled into believing anything. Unlike other poisons, 1080 is rapidly expelled from the system within a few days. The amounts of 1080 being found in Puha are less than that of the hot cup of tea people like to drink. Your data is out-dated and photos of dead koura do not prove they died of 1080, only scientific tests can. As a member of the Deerstalkers Association and a gunsmith, you stand behind your letter and Google, and I'll be standing in the bush with the pellets and the wetas.

Julia Graham, Tauranga.