The maker of d-Con®, Reckitt Benckiser, will no longer sell the poison pellets that happy homemakers for years have used to fatally banish unwelcome rodents (and which some marijuana farmers have used to clear their crops of pests, resulting in the deaths of wildlife).

New legislation already bans the general, non-permitted use of such poisons in California, beginning July 1, and many retailers have quit restocking their shelves. Now the d-Con folks have agreed with the EPA to altogether quit selling specific poison baits that cause animals who ingest them to bleed to death within a day unless they receive an anticoagulant such as Vitamin K (as noted in a Wall Street Journal story about the agreement).

The company has until 2015 to stop selling the bait. In a news release, the Humane Society's Nicole Paquette said, "Although under this agreement Reckitt Benckiser is allowed to continue to sell these harmful products until the end of the year, we urge retailers to remove them from store shelves immediately.”